


Confession Time

by Sleepy_fan



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-02-10 09:51:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18658018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sleepy_fan/pseuds/Sleepy_fan
Summary: Dream comes up with a game to help Nightmare open up to him.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that you enjoy this :D

Dream watched Nightmare walk towards him, book in hand, shoulders hunched and his body posture all curled in on himself. The other had gone to the village in order to try to borrow one of the books at the small library. He'd insisted on going himself - rather than Dream getting up to go get as many books as the other wanted (carefully writing down what sort of subjects the other wanted to read). From the defensive way that the other was holding himself... It hadn't gone very well. Dream had no idea  _ why _ the villagers didn't like Nightmare - his other half was loving and kind... 

But Nightmare would never really talk about whatever was bothering him, no matter how persistent Dream was about trying to talk to the other - Nightmare would sometimes even teleport out of sight and hide for  _ days _ if he was too pushy... Which was frustrating and worrying, as all he wanted was to help the other... If Nightmare wouldn't talk to him outright... Maybe if they played a game (both of them loved playing games, especially two-player games together) Nightmare would feel better about opening up? But what sort of game could they play that would ensure that the other would talk about what was bothering him... Or what he possibly felt guilty or unsure about?

Clearly this called for a new game, and Dream was determined to figure it out. His eye lights dimmed for a bit as he watched Nightmare walk the rest of the way to their tree, sitting down on the far side, so that no one who came up towards them from the village would immediately see him. After thinking for a while, Dream's eye lights brightened - this game would probably work! The positive spirit peeked around the trunk of the large tree, his heart lurching a little as he saw Nightmare had buried his face in his hands, and the other's shoulders were shaking a little. Violet tears were soaking into his clothes.

Instantly Dream rushed around The Tree and hugged his beloved other half tightly, distressed that the other had managed to hide the pain and misery that he was ever so slightly emitting from him. "Shh... It's... It's going to be okay, Nighty... S'okay… Do you..." He wanted to ask why Nightmare was crying, but that never ended in the truth. Time to take the plunge. "Do you want to play a game? I... I made a new one up, a little while ago, and I have the rules down and everything."

"I..." Nightmare started, his voice shaky as he clung tightly to the positive spirit, hesitating for a couple of moments before continuing, sounding and feeling a little surprised. "Sure, Dream. What's the game you thought of? I... I'm not sure that I'm up for a running-around kind of game."

"That's okay! It's not a running-around game. It's a talking game," Dream responded back, squeezing his beloved for a couple of moments before continuing. "It's called Confession Time. There are three basic rules. The first is that we have to be completely honest with each other about what we talk about. The second is that no matter what one of us tells the other, we can't hold grudges or be mad at what the other says... And the third rule is that after we finish talking, we have to cuddle with one another for at least five minutes afterwards, okay?"

"I... Oh... Okay. Wh-what are the goals of the game, Dream?" Nightmare asked, his voice a little quieter and the uncertainty and worry in his aura intensifying a little. 

But the other was still hugging him, which Dream took to mean that he was at least open to playing the game. "Well... We take turns talking about stuff that worries us... Or like, if we did or said something... Or didn’t do or say something that makes one of us feel guilty, we talk about it. So that it doesn't feel like an awful weight that we think that we have to keep hidden from the other."

"... Dream... I.." Nightmare started, fidgeting a little and shifting away from him in an unsure manner, the uncertainty and stress rising within the other's aura.

"Oh! A-and while we're talking, we're on opposite sides of the tree... So that we're close to one another while talking, but it's easier to talk than if we were to be face to face. Cuddles happen after the talking. Also, each turn begins with the person who’s talking to say Confession Time, so that the other knows that what they’re saying is something that they’re confessing, rather than talking about what the other person said. If… If we’re comfortable, we can talk about what we confess before the other person takes the next turn- but we don’t have to," Dream explained, guessing part of what the other was so distressed about... His visible reaction to whatever the other had to say. "So... So what do you think about the game?"

"I... It sounds... It sounds interesting..." The negative spirit responds uncertainly, though the stress in the other's aura lowered somewhat. "I... Could we maybe play the game a-at sunset? I just... I just want to hug you and read my book for right now."

It wasn't a no! Dream was determined to make sure that Nightmare would actually talk to him about what was bothering him... And depending on how Confession Time went, he hoped that they could make this a daily game that they played... Or at least one that they played every couple of days, as Dream could tell that there were a lot of things that bothered his beloved. It was worrisome that Nightmare didn't seem to want to talk about them... Maybe because the other thought that it would upset him? But... Even if whatever it was that was bothering Nighty did upset him, that didn't mean that Dream didn't want to hear it. He wanted to be there for his beloved, to support and care for him in all of the ways that Night has supported him. Guilt hit the positive spirit hard (again) and after a moment, Dream did his best to suppress the emotion, not wanting to worry Nightmare.

Oh. It seemed as if they  _ both _ had things that they were going to need to confess. Although Dream had planned on going first in order to get them talking about stuff, unless Nightmare actively wanted to talk first. Dream snuggled into his beloved, pressing a light kiss to one of the other's cheeks, content to settle into his lap.

~

The rest of the day went by rather slowly for Dream, though he was quite content to sit next to Nightmare and read over the other's shoulder as the day went by. He was rather glad that no one had tried to come to The Tree Of Feelings to beg for an apple of positivity - claiming that they needed it to heal someone, or to save a loved one. None of the apples were meant to be eaten, as they represented the positive and negative emotions of everyone - and unless one knew which apple was theirs specifically... Consuming someone else's apple - positive  _ or _ negative would cause that other person to lose all of those feelings. Or something along those lines. Dream wasn't entirely sure what would happen, but they'd been created to protect the tree and the apples from all who would try to use them.

As soon as the sun began to dip low on the horizon, the positive guardian gently tapped Nightmare on one of his shoulders, asking quietly, "Do you want to play the new game I came up with? You... You did promise that we'd play at sunset..."

Nightmare sighed a little as he marked his place in the book he'd been reading with a little bit of magic before closing it and setting it down. "I did. I suppose I am ready, although I... I don't know how well this game is going to go... Are we... Is the person being confessed to allowed to talk about what the confessor is trying to talk about? Or do we just say what's bothering us and then leave it at that?"

"Depending on what it is, and if both of us are comfortable with talking about whatever it is that's confessed, of course! But we don't have to, and it's up to the confessor if they wanna talk about what they confessed about. If they don't want to talk more about it, they should just say that they don't, and the matter will be left as it is. Okay?" Dream decided after a moment, doing his best to gauge the other's reaction. The entire reason why he'd come up with this game is to try to get Nightmare to talk to him about what was bothering him. He was willing to make a few concessions about how much they talked about whatever it was if the other would actually  _ speak _ of the issues weighing on his spirit.

Nightmare brightened up a little and smiled a little at that, nodding in agreement as he kissed Dream briefly before pressing his forehead to the other's, humming softly and smiling a little "I... Thank you, Dream. Who'll go to the other side of the tree? Who'll start?"

"... I can, if you want me to, for both things?" Dream offered, gently cupping one of his beloved's cheeks. His golden eye lights shining with warmth and affection, hope burning bright in his chest. This had the potential to help quite a bit - or so the positive spirit hoped. Nightmare nodded in response, and Dream made his way around the tree, stopping when he knew that he was directly across from the other and lightly knocked on the main trunk of the tree. Part of him wanted to start with something easy to confess too - but another part of him wanted to start with a heavier topic, one that burned in his soul... But would the latter distress Nightmare too much to continue? Lighter it was, just to be safe. "Confession time - I... I ate the last of the hand pies we made instead of giving them away to the villagers, like we agreed."

"Aww... Dream... It's okay. I snuck a couple more as well. They're really good and I didn't particularly feel like sharing as well." Nightmare responded, his voice neutral, but he could feel the amusement in the other's aura. The other cleared his (nonexistent) throat a little and said, "Confession time... You know when Mx. Kaninchen came to the tree and said that I pranked them? And I told you that I wasn't involved with that? I... I lied. I did prank them - and I don't regret making all of that dirt fall on them."

The positive spirit had... expected that, actually. The lapine monster had been saying all sorts of awful things about Nightmare for months, and he knew that his other half only had so much patience before it ran out. "It’s okay, I've played pranks on people I don't like before, too... and it's not like you threw manure on them, like they claimed that you did."

He could feel the surprise from Nightmare, and Dream wondered what it was that the other was startled about. Of course he'd forgive the other for a fairly harmless prank like that. It wasn't as if anyone had gotten sick or injured because of it. "Wait. What do... What do you mean, _people_ _you don't like_? I thought... I thought that you liked everyone, Dream. And since when do you play pranks on people?"

Dream sighed a little, rubbing his temples with a couple of fingers, regretting being quite so blunt. "Err... Haha... I was going to confess about that soon, actually. Do you want to talk about Mx. Kaninchen or the prank more?"

"No, I... I just wanted to tell you that I lied to you about pulling a prank on them." Nightmare answered honestly, confusion and curiosity mixing with surprise in the other's aura. 

"Confession time: I... I am polite to a lot more people because it's easier to deal with them that way... The only person I regularly interact with who I genuinely like... is you, Nightlight. I don't particularly care for any of the villagers, and that's always been true." Dream hesitantly confessed before wincing a little. This was meant for him to get  _ Nightmare _ to open up to him... 

"I... Uhm... I would like to know why that is, if... If you want to tell me?" Nightmare hesitantly asked after a moment, the shock in the other's aura eclipsing his other emotions. 

"... The villagers can be... really overwhelming, especially when they come in big groups and they always look to me and ask me things... a-as if I know the answers to everything and their... Their often conflicting and clashing emotional auras can be incredibly draining to deal with. They... They want me to solve their every problem - and they blame  _ you _ as the source of many of them and I  _ hate _ it! You're not the source of all misfortune and suffering! But every time I try to explain that, I get brushed off, or talked down to, like I'm some silly child that needs protecting!" Dream explained, his voice rising and falling a little, and he jolted a little as he realized that he was starting to yell. "I just... I would rather spend time with you, beneath the tree. But they find every little excuse to try to drag me away from you and I... I d-don't know wh-why I c-can't say n-no to them because I want to h-help... I r-really do but I just..."

"... They can take too much from you, and you don't know how to ask them to stop without feeling selfish?" Nightmare offered quietly, his voice warm and full of understanding. 

Dream could also sense surprise lingering in the other's aura. He winced a little, realizing that he'd been... hiding the fact that he had... some difficulties with how he interacted with the villagers, like Nightmare quite probably did. Not that the other had actually told him about it. Although the positive spirit  _ did _ sometimes come across them saying awful things or trying to attack his other half- he always put a stop to it as fast as he could - whether by talking the villagers down or just straight up grabbing Nightmare and teleporting the two of them back to the tree. Not that the other ever told him why the villagers were trying to attack him. "I... Yeah. That's how I feel." This game was supposed to help Nightmare, his own issues were likely much smaller in comparison to his other half's. Hopefully his ranting would encourage the other to talk about what was weighing on him, which helped to assuage some of the guilt that was running through Dream.

Nightmare was silent for a couple of moments before speaking very softly. "Confession time - even though I know that the mortals won't like it if I go to their village, I... I try to go at least once in a while, in... In the hopes that maybe I'll meet someone who won't hate me on sight. The... Sometimes the kids don't always instantly hate me or are too scared, but the adults won't let me teach them or play games... And I... I do this by myself because they pretend to be nice to me when we're together, and I _really_ _hate_ that they act so two-faced when you're around because they know it upsets you when they try to hurt me."

Dream could feel tears burning in his eye sockets, and he took in a couple of deep, steadying breaths in order to make sure that he didn't say anything rash. It  _ hurt _ to know that for sure... but he didn't want to upset his beloved by reacting too strongly to it - as he suspected that Nightmare hid things from him in an attempt to protect him from the darker sides of the villagers. "Oh..." He was going to have a  _ talk _ with the village elders after this. Something had to be done about the way that his other half was being treated. Though... Dream wasn't sure how to go about that sort of conversation - as they might just brush him aside - or give him promises that would not only turn out to be empty and false... but also cause his beloved to suffer worse as they falsely assume that Nightmare was trying to coerce him into talking them into treating his other half better. "Does... Does it ever work?"

Nightmare hesitated for a moment, before saying quietly, “Occasionally there is a traveler who comes to the Village. Whether they are here to visit the tree that they have heard of in stores and myths, or because they are simply going from one place to another. They are usually a lot more polite to me, and tart because they are tired and do not react as much to my aura as the villagers do. But that doesn't last long as the travelers are kept away from me, so that I don't corrupt them or something equally ridiculous like that.”

Dream swallowed down his initial reaction. It was disappointing to hear that the villagers were so against him. But the positive spirit was not entirely surprised by this. Occasionally the villagers would try to convince him to stay with them, rather than return to the tree and his beloved, as if he would be happier with them. Dream always patiently explained that he and Nightmare were two halves of the same whole- and therefore were meant to stay together. Their sacred duty, the one for which they've been created, was to protect the true feelings from any who would use the apples. That normally assuaged them, although sometimes they would get very insistent. Dream would deliberately avoid the villagers for a couple of weeks after those incidents, doing his best to keep his love close as well. “Awh… I'm really sorry that the villagers are such jerks.”

"I... It's not your fault that they are like that... But thank you for your kind words. You... You're..." The negative spirit seemed to be struggling to come up with something to say, as if his thoughts were a mess. "I love you so very much, Dream. I always will. I hope that you know that."

"I love you too, Nightmare." The positive spirit responded back earnestly. He could sense that the other's emotions were all over the place - guilty, love, care, worry, and others that he couldn't readily identify. Dream knew that his own feelings were all over the place as well and was very glad that he had included the ‘we must cuddle’ rule, as he was feeling very uncertain at the moment and desperately wanted a hug from the other. "Do... Do you want to continue the game right now? Or... Or should we stop for now?"

"I think that I would like to play this game more tomorrow… F-For now, I think I want to e-end the game and hug you for a while,” Nightmare answered after hesitating for a couple of moments. "I... I'm glad that we played this game today, and I...  I think that it... m-might help if we do continue to play it regularly... I'm just... I just really want to be done for now."

Dream could sense the stress and uncertainty in his beloved's aura and immediately rushed around the tree and tackled Nightmare, his arms wrapping tightly around the other, wanting to apologize for ranting at the other about some of his own issues - but that would probably reveal the fact that he'd thought up this game to specifically help the other and he... He didn't know how Night would react and he didn't want the other to draw away from him even further than he already had. But he had hope that this had bridged the distance between the two of them a little bit. "Sounds good to me. I love you so much, Nightmare."

"And I love you dearly as well, Dream." The negative spirit answered back, warmth and affection in the other's aura and on his face as the two of them sat down, closely cuddled together. "It's already nighttime... I hadn't realized that we'd been talking for so long. The stars are out, Dreamy. Do you want to see them?"

".... Maybe in a little bit. I want... I'd rather just hold and hug you for now... I-If you don't mind." Dream stuttered out, a small wave of panic hitting him - maybe the other was trying to be subtle and ask him to move away a bit? Or for them to hug differently and didn't want to say it outright?

But Nightmare just chuckled quietly and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of Dream's skull, squeezing the positive spirit a little before continuing to hold the other in a comfortable and loving hug. He was really glad that Dream had made sure that one of the rules of the game was to cuddle afterwards... As much as he kind of wanted to hide in the branches of the tree to quietly freak out about what he'd told and learned... Snuggling his beloved and calming down felt so much better. 

Despite the rather intense emotional shifts that he'd experienced, Nightmare felt that this game had helped. He did feel a lot better now than he had before. He was worried that he might have burdened the other with some of what was pressing against him but... Sharing the load made it easier. He was content to snuggle his beloved for as long as Dream wanted to, and he smiled a little as he realized that the other had drifted off to sleep. How had he ever gotten so lucky? Dream could have anyone he wanted - Nightmare was well aware of the fact that any of the villagers would jump at the chance to hold Dream's metaphorical heart in their hands - but their mortal lives were so quick and fleeting, even the monsters, who tended to live longer than the humans that it would just end up hurting Dream terribly.

Perhaps it was because they'd been made to complete each other? Nightmare hoped that wasn't the case... Because that would mean that Dream had no other choice but to love him, and guilt cut through him, a keen dagger that knocked the breath from his nonexistent lungs as he held his sleeping beloved a little closer. They'd been created as dual guardians - to protect one another as well as the tree, in the hopes that they would succeed where the previous had failed when faced with a powerful and malicious enemy... And, Nightmare decided silently, it had been a little too long since the two of them had sparred. They really should try to practice more regularly - just in case someone with bad intentions did ever come to visit them.

It hadn't happened, but that was no reason to let the combat skills that the previous guardian had given them become forgotten and ill-used. Not that they were probably supposed to fight each other... Their combat styles were complimentary in nature, meant for them to work in tandem against either singular enemies or groups. But asking the villagers to participate in their sparring matches wouldn't... Probably wouldn't work out too well. They'd go too lightly on Dream - while taking the opportunity to attack himself at full strength with malicious glee.... And as tempting as it was to show Dream what the villagers could really be like when they thought that they could get away with being awful and cruel to him... He couldn't do that to his beloved.

He could just barely picture the shock and horror on Dream's face, the other fumbling and unable to properly respond in kind. His better half would freeze up and  _ cry _ , moving only if one of them managed to land a solid hit on him, and then the other would likely either teleport to his side to create the shield and push them back while sobbing endless apologies at him while trying to heal the other, or try to drag the villagers away and potentially get hit with their magical attacks, which was something that Nightmare  _ never _ wanted the other to experience. While sparring with one another wasn't ideal, he decided that it would be better than trying to spar with the villagers. Nightmare snuggled a little further into his beloved, pulling the cloth that they'd used to decorate the tree down so that it draped around the both of them like a blanket. Nightmare slowly drifted off to sleep, curled protectively around his better half.


	2. Plans and Decisions

Dream woke slowly, yawning a little and stretching happily before he cuddled into his beloved, purring quietly as he turned his eye lights off again. The sun had just barely started to rise over the horizon, starting to paint the sky in a brilliant show of colors that Dream never got tired of. It was a little bit cloudy today, the positive spirit noted. There were some scattered, puffy bits of what looked like cotton in the sky, painted in bright pinks and yellows on one side, the other a dark shadow. Part of him wanted to wake Nighty up - but he knew that the other preferred to sleep in a little longer, rather than seeing the sun rise if he wasn't up on his own. Dream didn't mind accommodating for that.

They'd been playing Confession Time for years now, and it really did seem to be helping his beloved. While Nightmare would still come home to their tree distressingly covered in scrapes and bruises more often than he should, the other would more openly talk about what had happened to him, rather than brushing it off and saying that he'd just tripped and fallen onto a particularly pointed patch of rocks. Nightmare was also less resistant to Dream healing him and cuddling. Now, if only the positive spirit could come up with a way to stop the villagers from going after his beloved. Simply asking them to stop didn't work... Or it would work for a couple of days, a few weeks maybe, but not for longer than that.

It was getting to the point where Dream was strongly reminded of one of the reasons why the previous guardian of the Tree of Feelings had driven off everyone who had attempted to come within dozens of miles of the Tree - whether because they wanted the fruit or simply to stay close to both the tree and to the previous guardian. Not that he would demand something so  _ drastic _ without running it by Nightmare first, and the two of them coming up with several plans to implement it... Which would likely start with them politely asking the villagers to leave and to never return... Dream didn't imagine that such things would end well - and it would be a lot more difficult for them to get the books that Nightmare enjoyed reading - but teleportation made such trips much faster than the walking or horse-back riding that the mortals had to do in order to travel long distances. They'd have to go disguised as the mortals wouldn't take kindly to their presence after kicking them out of their homes.

But mortals didn't live very long, and though it might be a tense and unsure for the handful of decades that it took for the current set of mortals to live and die, things might settle down for the both of them. And then Nightmare would be much safer. It might be a little lonely, especially at first, but Dream would rather bare a little bit of loneliness, than to see his beloved suffer like this almost every day.

Part of him wanted to get up and barter for a couple of those pastries the bakery that had recently opened up made - a sweet one for himself, and one of those savory cheese ones for Nightmare - who liked those sorts of things best, but Nightmare's arms were draped around his waist, and he didn't want to potentially wake the other up. That and as his mind drifted off to their last game of Confession Time last night...

_ "Confession time - I... I know that you mean well when you get up before me in the mornings and leave to get food for us or books, but I... It really distresses me when I wake up and I can't see or sense you in the immediate area. It worries me and sometimes I... I worry that you left me f-for good and I..." Nightmare's voice broke and Dream could feel sadness and pain in the other's aura. He could also hear the other sobbing quietly. "I... I d-don't l-like those a-awful worries. E-Even though you always c-come back I just... P-please don't leave me while I'm sleeping." _

_ "I-I'm sorry, I didn't know that it upset you. I promise that I won't do that anymore." Dream responded, feeling guilty. He had noticed that the other would sometimes get unsettled or hug him closer, grumbling about not being able to sleep when he left... But he didn't realize that it upset the other so much to wake up alone. Determination filled the positive spirit, he would be the best mate that he could be for his other half. _

_ "I... Th-Thank you so-so much, Starlight! I... I know that we just started this round but I... C-Can we take a break? I just want to h-hug you for awhile..." Nightmare asked, his voice shaking and aura still miserable and uncertain. _

_ "Of course, Moonbeam. Whatever it is that you need or want." Dream answered earnestly as he made his way around the tree, hugging the other back tightly, purring quietly in order to help the other calm down a little bit faster, the two of them slowly sitting down and falling asleep. _

Nightmare really didn't like it when he vanished while the other was asleep. So Dream was doing his best to stick to his promise to Nightmare. If there was some sort of emergency at the village and one of the mortals came seeking their (… Probably just Dream's) help, the positive spirit would gently wake his beloved up, explaining where it was he was going before leaving with the villager to attend to whatever issue it was, if it didn't require the attention of both of them. Dream yawned a little bit and nuzzled sleepily into his beloved, purring a little bit and resisting the temptation to press kisses to Nightmare's face, wanting to let the other rest for as long as he wanted to. It wasn’t as if they had anything pressing that they needed to do, after all. Their days were spent together beneath the tree of feelings, staying vigilant for any who would try to eat any of the apples, to either gain power or to constantly feel happiness? Or both? Not that anyone had tried, as long as either of the guardians remembered. Still, that didn't mean that they shouldn't try to keep an eye out. 

As the previous guardian had been unexpectedly struck down after many years of peace as well, and the thought of seeing Nightmare die before him.... Dream snuggled closer to his beloved, burying his face into one of the other's shoulders, taking in a couple of deep breaths and letting the breath out slowly so as to help himself calm down. There was no reason to think in such awful and worrying terms. They'd continue to spar regularly as they usually did, to keep their fighting skills sharp, and support and care for one another for the rest of their eternal existence.

Nightmare shifted a little in his sleep, and Dream smiled fondly at his beloved, purring softly as he gave into the temptation to press a light kiss to one of the other's cheeks, squeezing him just a little tighter in his embrace. The negative guardian shifted a little more, and looked at him with fuzzy eye lights. "Mnnh… Morning Dreamy..." He pressed a light kiss to Dream's teeth, purring a little as he stretched and happily cuddled into the other's warm embrace.

"Morning Nighty..." The positive spirit responded with a happy grin, nuzzling his beloved a little, quite content to stay close to his beloved for a while longer yet. He was a little hungry, but he did have something to eat in his inventory - not that he really needed to eat just yet. 

"It's so early... But being woken by kisses is my favorite way to wake up." Nightmare mumbled sleepily, shifting in Dream's arms and yawning a little, quite content to be held for a while longer and slowly wake up.

"Sorry darling. I didn't mean to wake you up... I wouldn't mind if you went back to sleep." Dream responded quietly, a warm smile appearing on his face as he nuzzled into his beloved a little more. Sleepy Nightmare could be very endearingly cuddly.

"Hmm... That's tempting... but I'm hungry. Don't sleep well on an empty stomach..." The negative spirit mumbled, sitting up and sighing a little, waking up a little bit more, though still happy and content to stay in his other half's arms. He realized he was purring a little in response to Dream purring and nuzzled his beloved back, warm and happy and full of love and care. 

"I've got a couple of those spider donuts left from yesterday, which should tide us over for a little while longer... I know that they're sweet, but..." Dream offered quietly, pulling them out of his inventory. One of them was jelly-filled. The other had a sweet cream that was really tasty. 

"Hmm..." Nightmare looked at both of the donuts, sitting up a little bit more before grabbing the jelly-filled spider donut "I'll have this one. What do you want to eat this week? That stew that you made last week was really tasty... And those spider rolls were really good as well."

Dream hummed a little, thinking about the ingredients he'd need to barter for - and he'd work for them, rather than just accepting the free gifts - and he knew that the spider queen would let him use her kitchen in exchange for part of the food that he made and encouraging others to purchase food at her bakery - which were quite good, if a little on the pricey side. And both of them really enjoyed all of the baked goods that she made - though Nightlight, as ever, preferred the savory stuff over sweet. "I'll be gone most of the day, getting the stuff for it, is that okay? I'll come by every couple of hours, I promise."

Nightmare sighed, frowning a little and hugging him tightly. He didn't like it when Dream was gone for so long at the village. Part of him was terrified that his beloved would decide that the liked it better at the village, surrounded by his adoring and worshipful fans, rather than staying relatively isolated with him... But he also knew that Dream always,  _ always _ came home to him. That his beloved loved him and him alone romantically, and the confession game did help to soothe some of those fears and worries that Dream might one day leave and never return. "Okay. I'll probably stay up in the tree for most of the day and hide from anyone who shows up... Unless someone tries to take an apple. If they do, I'll flare my magic."

"And I'll teleport directly here in order to help you if that happens. After lunch, do you want to spar for a bit? If I've finished bartering with the villagers by then, of course." Dream asked, not particularly wanting to leave. They did need food, though - and there was only so much they could forage from the forest around them. They did have a small garden for food, but the both of them saved most of the food that they got from the garden for the winter time, when it was more difficult to get or barter for food.

"Hmm, okay." Nightmare wished that he could help Dream barter for food - but the negative spirit was also painfully aware of the fact that every time he tried... He got chased out of the village, the mortals harsh words and fists - or rocks and magical attacks - injuring him as he tried to dodge their attacks. It never ended well, and it wasn't worth the trouble - especially as Dream kept close to him and sent the mortals away - which made them even more angry at him for  _ daring _ to keep Dream from them. The fact that the other kept away due to their own actions went completely over their heads. "That sounds like fun." He smiles gently at his beloved, pressing another kiss to his teeth.

Dream nodded and snuggled into Nightmare for a couple of moments before sighing quietly and forcing himself to get up onto his feet, letting go of his beloved. Dream pressed a fond kiss to his beloved’s teeth, promising quietly, “I’ll be back as soon as I can manage - even if I have more things to do, I’ll definitely be here around midday and have lunch with you, okay?”

Nightmare nodded with a small sigh, cuddling his beloved back and answering “Very well, darling. I hope that acquiring food goes well. I still have several books from the library that you borrowed for me to keep me entertained. I’ll probably be sitting in the branches to read, so that the villagers if they come by, can’t get to me as easily.”

The positive spirit nodded, smiling fondly at his beloved, love in his heart and immediately teleporting to the edge of town - knowing that the mortals found it a little bit startling when either one of them suddenly just appeared in the middle of the town square unless prompted to be there.

~

Dream hummed quietly, smiling to himself a little as he walked back to the tree - he glanced up at the sky, frowning a little. A dark thunderhead had rolled in towards the middle of the day along with the strong winds that had just recently died down. He shivered a little bit as he walked a little bit faster - knowing that he and Nightmare would need to seek shelter beneath Dream’s cape as they huddled beneath the tree of feelings, just in case someone tried to steal an apple in such awful weather. He froze for a moment when he heard shouting and an awful commotion - staring in horror as he saw the tree dead and shriveled, the apples all dark. There was a lone, small figure close to the tree and a quickly approaching mob of villagers.

The positive spirit immediately teleported to the base of the tree, grabbing the nearest dark apple, it turning into a familiar gold. Nightmare was clutching one of the dark apples, tears streaming down his face and stuttering out, “I… I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t think that… I didn’t know that…” Whatever else Nightmare had been trying to say was lost as a flash of lightning and a loud rumble of thunder drowned it out. 

Dream rushed over to his other half, hugging him close with his free hand. He had absolutely no idea what was going on, but he was pretty sure that it wasn’t actually Nightmare’s fault. “I… Shh… It’s okay. We’ll figure out what happened to the tree and the apples together. I can… I can apparently turn the dark apples light.” He shivered a little as rain and hail began to hit the both of them - and the approaching mob of villagers.

Nightmare sobbed harder and ran closer to the tree as the villagers approached, one of them - a tall and broad-shouldered wolf-monster whose name escaped Dream at the moment. “It’s that demon’s fault! He’s corrupted the tree! We need to kill him to make sure that he doesn’t do more harm!” To punctuate his words, another rumble of thunder echoed across the valley, causing Dream to tense up almost as much as the villager’s hateful words had.

The positive spirit rushed towards the villagers, holding his free hand out and shaking his head. “No! Don’t… Don’t hurt Nightmare. This isn’t his fault. I-I don’t know what happened, but please… I-If you all could just calm down, Ni-Nightmare and I will tend to the tree and fix things. You should return home, this storm isn’t going to be getting any better for a while”

“No, Dream! We do not know why you are blind to this demon’s cruelty and evilness, but he doesn’t deserve to live!” A short human yelled, throwing a sharp rock at Nightmare - just missing the other as the negative guardian stumbled out of the way, still sobbing and horrified. “Let us kill  _ it _ and then come to one of our homes to be sheltered from the storm, we beg of you.”

“Please… Please just go back to the village, it is Nightmare and my duty to tend to it.” Dream attempted to soothe, taking a couple of steps backwards as the mob continued to advance on him. He shoved the panic and fear that was trying to claw its’ way through his soul to the back of his mind. He took an unsteady breath in and let it out slowly, focusing on using his aura - trying to push a sense of calm that he didn't at all feel onto the mortals. He really hoped that his little jumps and frightened squeaks every time that the thunder rumbled overhead wasn’t as obvious and audible to the villagers as it felt like. He had to control himself - to calm the villagers down - or at least to send them away so that he and Nightmare could deal with whatever had happened to the tree without interference.

“No! That demon was left alone with the tree and it turned into this. He needs to be stopped!” Several of the mortals yelled loudly, one of them charging Dream, striking the positive guardian guardian with enough force to cause him to collapse to the ground, and hiss in pain.

“Please st-stop!” Dream called out, struggling to try to get up, the ground quickly turning slick and muddy.

“No!” Nightmare yelled, his eye lights going out before he scrambled up the tree and shoved one of the negative apples into his mouth, and absorbed it. The other continued to shove apples into his mouth and seemed to come to a complete stop.

Dream stared with mute horror, struggling to get up to his feet, the air suddenly turning to molasses as he desperately tried to get closer to Nightmare, the panic and fear that he's been trying to suppress nearly overtaking him completely when his other half falls out of the tree and begins to scream and thrash, the negative apples detaching from the tree and sinking into the other's body, absorbing and staining the other's clothes an inky black.

Horror and a desperate desire to save his beloved propel Dream forwards - despite the soul-shattering screams and the awful squelching, crunching noises that are coming from Nightmare. The positive guardian stumbles and falls to his knees as a palpable wave of negativity pulses through the glade and beyond. The ground instantly turns into dead blacks and browns, the sky - which was once a lovely blue turns into an ominous red and the mortals behind him  _ charge _ en masse towards Nightmare, screaming incoherently.

"N-NO! S-stop it!" Dream screams, too weak to move another step, but he forces his rapidly diminishing magic to teleport directly in front of the roiling mass of strange sticky liquid that his beloved other half  has turned into, summoning his staff and using it to force himself up onto his feet, glaring at them with a resolve that he was struggling to hold onto. "You... Will not... Hurt... Nightmare... Leave... Leave now..." He throws his hands wide, desperately trying to physically shield the other, it's literally the only thing he can do. He's barely standing as it is, and he knows that if he so much as tries to take another step towards Nightmare he will collapse into unconsciousness, unable to take the pure waves of Negativity that continue to pulse outwards from his beloved other half. 

The mortals pause for only a moment before continuing to charge, cursing and those with magic summon attacks - Dream parries clumsily with his staff, the pale and thin magical shield that he's summoned to screen the worst of their meager, desperate blows cracking and crumbling. The positive spirit is driven to his knees, desperately clutching the last positive apple in the hand that he's not holding onto his staff, and focuses on the shield - trying to protect Nightmare.

A cold and distorted chuckle burbled and echoed from behind Dream, chilling and terrifying. A wave of pure negativity pulsed out from the source of the dark laughter, along with strange, fast moving black and cyan tendrils. The first strikes the villager closest to both of the guardians, striking the hapless human square in the chest, blood pouring from the wound, their red soul pierced by the sharpened tip, fracturing from the point of contact with it before shattering. The human coughed once before going limp. Three monsters fall to dust just as quickly, their clothes empty as their ash scatters to the now dead and barren ground.

The rest of the villagers start screaming and half of them try to flee - the other half seem to be frozen in horror and are ripped apart - some are torn in half by merciless black and cyan tendrils that leave a strange, tarry substance wherever they go, others are strangled or decapitated. All of this death and destruction are accompanied by a deep, terrifying laugh that Dream has never heard before. It feels like a painful eternity before he manages to force himself to turn around to stand and attempt to face this cruel murderer...

Only to freeze up in shock and horror as tears begin to run down his face. The killer is... Nightmare? The negative guardian is covered in that strange substance, four tendrils coming from his back, and laughing maniacally, a wide and horrific grin on his face that Dream's never seen before. "AHAHAHA! THAT'S RIGHT! ALL OF YOU WILL SUFFER FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME!" Part of the other's circlet has slipped down, and one of his eye sockets is covered in the viscous fluid. Several lightning strikes hit the ground with blinding brightness, and the thunder rumbled for an eternity around them, magnifying the awfulness of what was going on around them.

"Night... Nightmare please... I know that this isn't you... P-Please stop killing the villagers. I-I know that they've been cruel and unfair - b-but that doesn't mean that they deserve death." Dream pleaded, shaking and clutching the object that he was holding in his hands tightly to his chest, grateful for the anchor to help try to ground him. 

"Hm..." Nightmare's new limbs stop moving for a moment and his other half tilts his head a little at his words, seemingly considering his words for a moment, the smile fading for a moment - before stretching wide, his eye light shining brightly with a terrifying sort of madness. "Nah. After all, no matter how either one of us asked them to stop hurting me, none of them ever spared or granted me such a mercy... So why should I give them what they've never thought to show me?" There were several awful crunching and gurgling sounds, followed by wet coughing and the awful, distinctive sound of a monster dusting... And a human soul shattering.

"Be... Because you're better than they are! Nightlight... Please?" Dream tried, flinching and shuddering at the sounds of death around them.

"D-Dream! Please..." A terrified voice pleaded from behind him "You need.. To kill this  _ d-demon _ before he kills us all! Plea-"

The voice was abruptly cut off, and from the faint choking sounds, Nightmare had made sure that they couldn't speak. Not that he would ever try to harm his other half. Nightmare laughed again, looking and sounding even more unhinged. "You mortal fools really don't understand anything about either one of us? To hurt me would be to hurt himself, Dream knows this all too well. Besides, despite being  _ inattentive _ and a little  _ flighty _ he is a decent enough mate to me."

"Wh-What?" Several voices sputtered from much closer than what the positive guardian was expecting, causing Dream to unintentionally stumble closer to Nightmare as he turned around, startling as he realized that Nightmare was currently holding a half-dozen or so villagers in his tendrils, each of them dangling by the neck. Three were struggling to escape, two were simply trying to gasp for breath... And one had just gone limp in Nightmare's grip. One of the two humans being held managed to sputter, their eyes glowing a bright red as they summoned a glowing knife the same color as their eyes, trying to stab Nightmare, but the blade kept bouncing off of the slick tendril, doing no damage whatsoever. "What... Do you mean... Mate?"

"Hmm? Oh, have we not told this generation of mortals? Then again, all of you blend one into the next, your lives are so short and fleeting. Meaningless and without a purpose. Dream is mine, and always has been." Nightmare purred possessively, though his grip on the mortals seemed to loosen ever so slightly.

Okay. So his beloved wasn't completely lost to whatever the  _ hell _ had taken him over (so this is what happened if someone ate the negative apples... This was  _ awful _ and Dream hoped that he would be able to figure out how to restore Nightmare to who he really is somehow). Dream was pretty sure that he could work with that. He turned to look at the... To look at his other half, taking a couple of tiny steps forwards, doing his best to convince Nightmare to let the villagers go. "... Be-beloved? Please put the mortals down. The ones who you haven't killed or grabbed have run away... They won't come back if you let them go? Right?" He glanced briefly over one shoulder, addressing the villagers briefly before focusing back on Nightmare again. If he could calm the other down, it would go a long way to de-escalating things - so long as the villagers didn't say anything to further anger or upset him.

The five conscious mortals all sputtered out, "Y-Yes of c-course." Still clearly struggling to breathe , even if the positive spirit wasn't looking at them to know for certain.

Dream did feel a flash of guilt - he could sense the others' distress and fear at the situation they were in but he couldn't let that distract him. "See? They... They've promised to go... All... All you need to do is to set them down and let them go."

"Oh, my sweet and naïve mate, do you really think that you can trust any promise they make? They've given you false promises before about not hurting me in the past - so why is this going to be any different? Then again, I haven't tried threatening their fleeting, pathetic lives before... And their fear... Their pain... It's a  _ delight _ to feel. It would be a pity if that stopped so soon... Then again there  _ are _ more mortals in this world for me to torment if I so chose, so it's not as if these particular ants are valuable enough to let go..." The corrupted spirit reflected, humming a little in consideration. 

"I... N-No one deserves to be killed, Nightmare." Dream cajoles, trying to clear his eye sockets of the terrified tears that continue to fall from his face with the hand that's not holding the only positive apple currently left in existence. "Please just let them go..."

Nightmare is suddenly intensely focused on him - or rather, something he's holding. The smile on his face seems to shift a little, and the other stalks towards him, the potent aura of negativity knocking the breath from Dream's nonexistent lungs and causing him to stumble and fall to his knees, swaying and barely conscious at the oppressive darkness surrounding him suddenly "How about this, darling. You give me that Positive apple, and I'll let those mortals live. I'll even let them go and allow them to run away."

"I..." For the briefest moment, Dream is tempted. But the information that the previous guardian had left in their minds about the importance of the apples - and what would happen, should all of one kind be destroyed - comes to the forefront of his mind. "W-What are you going to do to it, if I... If I gave it to you?"

"Why, turn it into a negative apple and consume it of course. That way there would be no force in this or any other universe that could stop me. No one would ever be able to hurt me ever again." The negative guardian responded, moving closer still, one hand extended and... Was Nightmare seriously expecting him to hand the positive apple over?

"... Nightmare, if I... If I give you the apple, it would mean that-" The positive spirit started, desperately hoping that he could appeal to the other's sense of reason. Surely Nightmare wasn't that far gone? Dream couldn't really sense the other's emotions - the other's powerful aura and the terror from the villagers was too much for him to try to process. 

"All positive feelings in the multiverse would vanish - apart from the positive feelings other beings would be able to feel by being close to you. Yes, I know this, Dream." Nightmare smirked, now standing directly in front of the positive spirit, gently tracing the line of the other's jaw with the tip of a finger "Now, are you going to be a good mate and do as I ask?"

Dream shivered a little, wanting desperately to lean into that gentle touch - but for the sake of everyone's hopes and positive feelings he... He had to say no. He couldn't look at Nightmare directly - if he  _ said _ no, it was incredibly unlikely that the other would just accept that - not in the unstable and violent state that he was currently in, and no matter how far he could run in this world - in their home universe even - Nightmare would eventually catch him. Hesitantly, Dream started to raise the hand that had the apple - as if he was about to hand it to Nightmare. He shut off his eye lights and shoved the positive apple into his mouth, swallowing it whole as he threw himself backwards, away from the corrupted guardian.

Dream had just barely managed to scramble out of the other's initial lunge forwards, staggering up to his feet when a slimy, cold  _ something _ wrapped around his waist, pinning his arms in place with painful force. He looked down, his eye lights shrinking to pinpricks as he realized that one of Nightmare's tendrils had wrapped itself around him. "N-No! P-Please let me go, N-Nightmare!" He could feel something building up inside of him, and wondered if he was absorbing the positive apple.

The other's magic surged around him, and the other howled angrily. "HOW DARE YOU EAT THE APPLE! HOW FUCKING DARE YOU?!" 

Dream struggled weakly in the other's grasp, tears sliding down his face and he pleaded, "St-stop... It hurts... Ni-Nightmare please... It hu-hurts..." Nightmare's magic surged around him, clashing with his own and then everything went dark.

There was a brilliant flash of light, and Nightmare stared in surprise and shock as Dream turned to stone, starting from the other's waist - which was where he'd been holding the other - spreading up and down at the same speed. The corrupted guardian quickly let his other half go, staring in utter confusion. The tentacle that had been touching the other seemed to be perfectly fine. Nightmare cautiously walked up to the other, suspicious, wondering if the other had cast an illusion of some kind. But when he touched the statue, he could feel the other's presence and spirit ever so slightly. Perhaps he had accidentally cast some sort of stasis spell? He had no idea how long it would hold. Still, it wouldn't break in the next few days... Which meant that he could go after those pathetic fools who had tormented him and sought to take his beloved mate for their own selfish desires to be happy all the time. Nightmare stood in the wind and rain for a couple of moments, a small part of himself knowing that Dream would hate to be left alone in such a storm - including the thunder that startled him so. A small, cruel smirk appeared on his lips - the other had disobeyed him. “I will see you later, my love. For now I need to go  _ hunting _ .” With that he teleported into the mortals’ village, striking out at anyone fool enough to approach him and laughing maniacally as he did so.


	3. Regrets and Wishes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare talks to Dream’s statue and figures out how to create portals to other universes.

As the days turned into months and then into years, Nightmare found himself visiting his other half less and less over time. At first he couldn’t go more than an hour or two without teleporting back to where Dream’s… Statue? Stood. Checking to make sure that no one had tried to do anything to him, or tried to steal him away and hide the other from him. Hoping that Dream would shake off the stasis spell that Nightmare had unintentionally cast on the other. Still… Even as his visits became less frequent… The negative guardian couldn’t help but keep up his practice of playing Confession Time with Dream at Sunset whenever he visited. Even if he was the only one playing, and all he could do to cuddle afterwards was to wrap his tentacles around the other’s stone-bound form and lean against the other, occasionally whispering apologies for trapping the other in such a way…

Once the anger and fear had died down in his mind, Nightmare knew that Dream would have never gone against him - even as the whispering, seething voice of maddened corruption urged him to ensure that the stasis spell would never break. His newly granted powers will be able to weaken you. Keep him trapped forevermore, so that you can rule this world and the pathetic mortals who tormented and mocked you without contest. But Dream wouldn’t fight him, they loved one another too much to do so. As long as he didn’t immediately attack the other once he broke free of the spell… Which Nightmare had no idea how he’d cast it, much less how to reverse it. From what he had read from the spell books that he came across that weren’t completely destroyed by panicked mortals fleeing from him, such spells needed to wear off on their own time - as early reversal could have unintended and potentially devastating consequences. The very last thing that Nightmare wanted was to further harm the love of his life.

He walked through the barren, lifeless landscape, first through the long-abandoned and broken-down hovels that the villagers had once lived in, their dust and even the human’s bones having long been blown away and turned into nothingness. Nightmare hasn’t killed all of the mortals who live in his timeline (and not just because it was one of the last things that Dream had begged him to do, before being turned to stone), because if they were all dead, who would he rule? He made his way over to where Dream stood, the frozen expression of fear and hurt confusion on his other half’s face not causing him to flinch or pause the way it had at first. The castle that he was having his terrified subjects build for him was well under way, and he was paying them for their time and effort, as Nightmare figured that they would be more motivated to work quickly that way.

One of his hands came up to rest on one of Dream’s shoulders, and Nightmare murmured quietly, “Confession time… I killed another three mortals today. They were trying to start a rebellion amongst the other mortals. I dragged them, kicking and screaming from their little plotting room into the center of the town square. I ordered the Dark Papyri to round all of the mortals up and bring them to the town square. I informed them of the crimes that the three fools had committed and I executed them quickly. The rabbit monster first - straight through the soul, quick and clean. The wolf-monster bit me so I… I indulged in a little bit of petty vengeance by strangling him to death. The human was struggling and pleading at that point, but I shattered their yellow soul. I almost didn’t kill them, as it was such a pretty color. The hue reminded me of your magic and eye lights… But that human would have continued to cause trouble. Yellow-souled humans are almost more trouble than the ones with Red souls now.”

Nightmare paused for a moment, shivering a little. He was grateful that Dream couldn’t hear him. He could almost imagine the horror and sorrow that his lighter, better half would have reacted if he’d heard he had done such a thing. But, he could also imagine that moments later, the other’s sweet voice would speak up and say something along the lines of: _“I… I wish that you wouldn’t have to kill so much.. B-But I’m glad that you didn’t make their deaths painful… Do you… Do you want to talk about why you did that so publicly?”_

He huffed a little at the imagined question, answering it. “Of course I executed them publicly. I’ve crowned myself king, remember? Those mortal idiots have no way to possibly go against me… And I killed those three rebellious mortals in order to firmly dissuade any others from trying to do the same. They can’t kill me, no matter what magic they think that they can bring to bear, or the weapons that they craft with the sole intention of trying to end my life.”

Dream would likely be choosing his words carefully, were he able to respond. Something like: _“I… Okay. So you’re trying to make sure that you don’t have to kill more people if they try to do something dumb? I… That’s… That’s better than just killing them as they try to rise up against you.” his aura would show his worry and concern - not only for the mortal fools, but also for him as well. Perhaps Dream might even say something along the lines of “I wish that there was something that I could do to help…”_

“I keep this place free of mortals, Dream. Though knowledge of you does seem to be fading, belief that you do exist somewhere is strongest amongst those who have rebellious sentiments against me. I do not know what would happen, were they to find your statue and I want to keep you safe. I fear that they might try to reverse the spell or… Or harm your statue to see if you will wake from the stasis spell.” Nightmare murmured, realizing after he had spoken that he was treating the imaginary conversation he was having in his head with Dream as if it was actually happening. It was very likely that the other couldn’t see or hear anything… But he might sense his presence, despite the stasis spell because of how profoundly linked the two of them are. Nightmare can still faintly sense the other’s presence within the stone prison he’s encased in. “I hope that you know that I love you. I never stopped.”

 _“I love you too, Nightmare!”_ Dream might respond, shifting behind the tree or whatever they were hiding themselves behind, likely wanting to teleport to the other side and hug him. Maybe give Nightmare a couple of kisses. Stars above and below,  he missed his other half desperately. _“You mentioned something about a castle, Nightlight? Seems kind of excessive to me…”_

“Hey now, I am the king of this world… And speaking of such things, once it’s fully built. I intend to carry you to a spot close to where it’s being built. I want to be able to visit you every day and I… I have an idea that I think that you might like…” Nightmare murmured quietly, leaning around Dream, unable to resist the temptation to curl his tentacles around the other’s stone form, his arms wrapped around his waist securely in a hug that the other couldn’t respond to. The negative spirit was unsure as to whether or not he was thinking wistfully… But for a moment, he thought that he felt Dream’s presence within the statue strengthen for a couple of moments… Perhaps reacting to him being closer.

 _“What is it? Nighty please tell me!”_ Dream would ask, his golden eye lights full of the curiosity that he could keenly sense in the other’s emotional aura, gently tugging at him to explain. He might see the other peek at him from the other side of the tree before going back to the other side.

“Hmmm… I did intend for it to be a surprise for you, Dream… So you’ll just have to wait.” Nightmare murmured quietly, pressing a gentle kiss to one of the other’s stone cheeks, struggling not to cry or to start screaming in frustration. Why did his beloved have to be trapped in stone? How long would it take for this wretched curse to end, and the two of them to be together again? Then again… “Confession time - though I look forwards to you finally waking up… I’m also terrified that you… That you will try to fight against me when you wake. It would tear me apart for you to do so but… Given what all I’ve done… The demonic villain that I have so clearly become - at least in the eyes of the mortals - I don’t… I don’t want to lose you again, my daydream…”

 _“Nightmare I… You know that I wouldn’t fight against you, no matter how dark you have become. When I do wake up, I’ll try to get you to be nicer to people, but I… I don’t think I could fight you. I wasn’t going to when you put that stasis spell on me. I was just… Scared and-and I had to protect the last golden apple. I wasn’t keeping the power from you for selfish reasons I was just..”_ Dream might explain, fidgeting with his hands and looking away from him, still leaning comfortable in his grasp, perhaps. Guilt and uncertainty, mixed with protectiveness and love.

Or so Nightmare would like to imagine. “To preserve some positive feelings in the multiverse. Yes, I am… I am aware of this. At the time I was too consumed by the power that I had so recently acquired I lost control of myself… My deepest apologies for doing so. I will apologize to you, should you not immediately run upon waking. I really hope that you don’t, though I will understand if you do…” The lord of darkness murmured softly, holding the statue of his beloved a little closer, the thought of the other trying to flee from him almost too awful to contemplate - though it was something that he worried about rather a lot. The mortals seemed convinced that he’d either killed or imprisoned Dream… A few held out hope that their beloved beacon of light and love had simply fled after being terribly injured, and would come to their rescue one day, to triumphantly strike down the demon of darkness.

 _“Confession time… I - I still want to wander across the multiverse. We know it exists, because of the skeletal bodies that the previous guardian made for us! I want to know what it’s like in other worlds - do they have important places to protect, or are they free to live their lives however they want? I’d never leave your side but I… I want to wander, if we can.”_ Dream confessed - having said much the same thing once, as snow had begun to fall around them.

Nightmare had been surprised to hear that at first - it was another hint that his other half was almost as unhappy about being tethered to this tree and constantly pestered by the mortals as Nightmare was - though the positive spirit was worshipped and his very presence coveted. As he grew older and gained more perspective, Nightmare could only imagine how difficult that must have been for Dream - who he had known, was perfectly content to stay by his side and tend to their duties. He liked to interact with others well enough but… Dream had been unable to show any emotion around the mortals that wasn’t entirely positive or happy - lest they seek retribution on Nightmare, who was clearly at fault in their eyes.  "I’m still trying to figure out if we can cross universes. Given that the previous guardian was able to do so at least to some degree, it’s very likely that we can… I’ll just have to give it more thought.“

Dream might hum thoughtfully, his golden eye lights bright, though he wouldn’t be able to see because they’d be still on opposite sides of the tree, wanting to adhere to the rules of the game. _"Hmm… It’s a mystery… Still, I believe that you’ll figure it out! You’re very smart and you read all those books all the time… Or at least you did. Do you still read, or are you too busy as the king of our world?” Nightmare was fairly sure that his beloved would tease him a little for the title, a bit of mischief in the other’s magical aura, though Dream would mean it lovingly. Everything that Dream did was done with love and concern for someone - he was a genuine ray of light and warmth in a world that, for the negative guardian, had been miserable and full of pain._

“Hey Dream, you had said before… Before you’d turned to stone that you had an idea as to how to get the villagers to leave me alone for good. But you never told me what it was - you said that you were trying to come up with how to phrase your idea properly… I would have helped you, had you told me your plan.” Nightmare murmured quietly. It was something that he genuinely wanted to know - because unless Dream’s plan was to somehow banish them from their presence by at least several days’ walk or riding… Which would be unlikely that his generally gentle beloved would actually be able to enforce with any true ferocity… It probably wouldn’t have worked. Not for very long as mortals could be so terribly forgetful of the promises that they made.

 _“Yeah, and I was working on it! I just… I was working on how to tell you the plan so that you might agree to it… But you figured out how to make them leave you alone on their own…”_ Dream might remark quietly, going quiet for a couple of moments. _“N-Not that I’m… I’m mad at you f-for killing most of them… They would have… They would have tried to kill us if you didn’t strike them first. I just wish that there would have been a peaceful solution to this.”_

“I know, Dream. But that’s because you’ve got an overdeveloped sense of Mercy and forgive far too easily.” Nightmare answered back, shaking his head a little, knowing that it would make his other half sulk a little. He knew that he spoke the truth. Dream gave so much of himself to other people (including Nightmare himself) and seemed to expect nothing in return… Or at least, that’s how the other had been before he had turned Dream to stone. Nightmare stiffened a little as he sensed several very agitated beings headed in his direction at high speed and cursed lowly before remarking, “I’m sorry Dream, but there’s someone headed this way, and I do not want anyone to know where you are. I will attempt to spare them, as I know that’s what you would want.”

 _“Thank you, Nightmare! I hope that they’re just running this way because they need your help… Rather than because they’re here for something… Not so good…”_ Dream might respond, perhaps even peeking around their tree and nodding a little. _“I’ll hide here. Be careful Nightlight!”_

“I will, my precious star.” Nightmare responds quietly, pressing a gentle kiss to one of the other’s cheeks before teleporting to where the charging monsters were, a smirk on his face, his tentacles sharp and at the ready.

~

Three weeks later, and Nightmare found himself in a very desolate and hopeless Alternate Universe. The lord of darkness had realized that he could sense other places that were filled with Negativity and create portals to lead him to these places. He walked as quietly as he could through the desolate, snow-covered forest, his senses on high alert as he searched for one of the inhabitants of this world. He saw a crude shelter in the distance, and could sense that someone sentient was currently staying there. He could sense anger, despair and a frantic, desperate desire (or perhaps need?) for something within the being.

Nightmare decided to be dramatic and teleported directly in front of the crude shelter, taking in the appearance of the being. A tall, broad-shouldered skeleton monster with a single, glowing red eye light and a huge crack in his skull. Leaning against the far wall of the shelter was a chipped axe. The mortal monster startled a little, reaching for his axe. “Who the fuck are you? You… You’re new here. I don’t think I’ve seen you before, and I’ve met a lot of monsters. Those of us who are left.” The mortal swore, rearing back a little.

The lord of negativity chuckled lowly and grabbed both the skeleton monster and the other’s axe with his tentacles, pulling the other from his supposed spot of safety and smirking at him. “You would be correct, I am not from this world. I am Nightmare, lord of Negativity. I am curious as to why your world is so full of despair and misery. Care to tell me? If you entertain me well enough I may just deign to help you.”

The Sans glowered at him before reluctantly explaining about The Barrier and the human souls they’d painstakingly collected over a thousand years of imprisonment. “And then the seventh human fell - but they had a Determined soul, so every time the little shit died, they were able to turn back time to before they died. They made their way through the underground, killing the king and stars fuckin’ know what happened to the human souls we previously collected. Then Empress Undyne took over and imposed several laws - including strict food rationing which has led, along with the decreased Hope of ever getting out of this shitty prison, to most of us twisting.. That and I fucking hate her for what she did to my baby bro… Twisted his gentle innocence into what it is now. You want my loyalty? We need food, freedom and for that fuckin’ Empress to die. I guarantee that you’ll have more than just my loyalty, but everyone else’s as well.” Sans also explained about Loads and Resets - shuddering in fury and unhappiness.

Nightmare hummed a little, nodding in understanding. “Are there monsters who are loyal to this Empress Undyne? I may have to kill them as well - otherwise they could try to ferment rebellion which will lead to more unnecessary deaths. I’ve never heard of Loads and Resets - while some of the humans in the world I am from have magic, and some even have a magically Determined soul,, they’ve never been in control of my world. The only one in control is myself, and Resets are impossible in my timeline due to what it is. There never was a human-monster war, and everyone lives on the surface, as they always have.”

The other’s red eye light widened before shrinking down a pinprick and the other went limp and still in his grasp, he looked down. A clear sign of surrender. “I… Please… I’ll… I’ll do anything you ask, just… Please take my brother with you to this timeline of yours. I want him to be safe, to be free of those who can turn time on it’s head and play with our lives and hearts, killing and saving on a whim. Papyrus is still a gentle soul, and I’m pretty sure that I can convince him that your humans are friends, not food. Your world sounds like a fuckin’ paradise. Use me as you please, I don’t… I don’t care.”

The other’s pleading was wonderful to hear - the villagers who lived around the castle had long since gone quiet, turning into limp dolls whenever he tried to torment any of them, which was boring. Nightmare considered letting Sans beg and plead for his brother’s safety and security for a while longer, then decided against it. “In exchange for your people being freed - I may simply bring them all to my timeline and have them settle in villages that suit their varying needs due to monster type, rather than unsealing the barrier above -as I do not know how the humans of your world will react to monsterkind after being so pushed aside for so long. The humans of my timeline have long lived peacefully with monsters and the races mingle freely - and your brother being safe… Perhaps I would have him work as a member of my staff on the council? What does he like to do? You will work for me - fighting when needed. Is this understood?”

“Yes, yes sir! I’m a good fighter, despite my low stats, sir.” Sans responded, nodding frantically in agreement. “Papyrus likes to cook. He hasn’t been taught how to cook well, but if he’s taught by someone who actually knows what they’re doing, I’m sure that he could get loads better.” Nightmare was the single most powerful being he had ever sensed before - including the determined human whose name Sans refused to acknowledge. Papyrus was also a good fighter - but Sans would rather the other not gain any more LV than he already had. Undyne had forced his brother to kill and it was the worst thing that Sans had ever experienced - and that included dying by the human’s hands that one time. Going to a world where time was linear and couldn’t double back on itself, or stutter backwards and forth for hours and days at a time? There was nothing that Sans wouldn’t do to earn a place in such a world for his brother and himself. “As for who’s actually loyal to her… Alphys, maybe? She’s our Royal Scientist, but I’m not sure. I can send out some feelers, talk to some good friends of mine… Grillby is an excellent friend, an fantastic chef and a powerful fighter - he’d be useful to you as well.”

Nightmare’s visible eye light lit up, glad the other was taking his offer seriously. He noticed something and murmured, “Before we continue this conversation - perhaps I should show you to the world that you and your people will be moving to… Are you well enough aware of the needs that the monsters in the underground require to speak to me of such things?”

“I… I believe so, sir.” Sans answered back with a nod, his emotions a mixture of hopeful, terrified, suspicious, and determined.

A small smirk appeared on the Lord of Darkness’ face as he opened a cyan portal, stepping through it with Sans in his tentacles, setting the other down as the portal closed behind them. “Welcome to my world, Sans. Shall we begin?”

“Yes sir.” The Sans from Horrortale responded, nodding again, feeling a little bit like one of those human toys that had a head that bobbled and wiggled up and down, side to side. But he’d do what he could to get his people safe and free - even if it meant sacrificing what was left of his soul to this… Strange being


	4. Garden Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Killer and Dust drag an unwilling Hatchet into the forbidden garden. There they find a very interesting statue.

Hatchet, Dust and Killer have been working for Nightmare for decades. While working for the Lord of Darkness wasn't what any of them thought that they would be doing with their lives, it wasn’t so bad. Dust and Killer were free to maim, terrorize and even kill anyone stupid enough to piss off the Boss - but they couldn't play with the fuckers who lived in this AU unless they did something stupid. But they couldn't instigate anything - and boss knew if they tried. Hatchet had more noble reasons - he was trying to keep his people fed. It was safer for them to keep behind the protective barrier than deal with the humans above ground - who were just as vicious and dust-hungry as the monsters who thirsted for the humans' blood and flesh below.

There were some monsters who had moved to Boss's world - Crooks being one of the first, along with most of the non-guard members of Snowdin. They'd settled in one of the previously abandoned little mountain villages, surrounded by seemingly endless snowy forests, filled with animals to hunt and land fertile enough to grow any crop that they so desired. With land to roam and a night sky with stars to look at, Hatchet and those who had moved here - some of the aquatic monsters of Waterfall finding either fresh or saltwater lakes and oceans to live and  _ be _ where it wasn't cramped and awkward... Not going after the other sentient beings in this world seemed more than fair.

Other minions came and went - some either dusting in battle or thinking that  _ betraying _ Nightmare would end in anything but their death (after they watched as Nightmare tore apart their AU, the monsters and/or humans alike dying screaming, pleading in mercy, terribly confused as to why the eldritch creature who had been aiding them suddenly turned on them,) laughing with a manic grin as he tore their minds and bodies apart. Not that every monster and human from such AUs were killed, the survivors allowed to live in other worlds, traumatized and telling the stories of what happens if one ever attempted to  _ cross _ Nightmare.

The three of them were currently trying to find Nightmare. Several Toriels and Asgores had just arrived at the castle, wishing to speak to their ruler. Give him the time of day, and dark and often mysterious benefactor it was probably in the Forbidden Garden. As far as the three of the new, and as Hatchet had been working with him for over a hundred years, no one but nightmare was ever allowed to be in the large and expensive Gardens near the castle. From what they could tell there were beautiful flowers, shrubs, and even trains. There were fruit trees and berry bushes, even nut trees from every Au that nightmare had ever visited. They knew that their boss grabbed any unique plant, particularly if it was flowering or put give food that was edible. They also knew that there were herbs and spices that grew in certain sections of the garden. The only kind of fruit that was noticeably absent the gardens were apple trees. No matter how beautiful or unique The Apple Tree, nightmare seem to purposefully leave even the smallest and easiest sapling in the area that came from. Whether that was because he hated apples for some reason or because he was allergic to them and didn't want something that could make him sick in his home AU... As there were no apple trees  _ anywhere _ within Nightmare's home timeline.

They reached the edge of the gardens, and if they squinted, the three of them could see a distant dark figure, standing still, touching the Mysterious Statue. Hatchet sighed. "We'll tell them that Boss is busy. None of the visitors said that they needed his attention urgently, and we're not allowed to cross into the gardens."

"But... He's just... Standing there. Hatch, do you know what that statue even is? I've seen him wander over to it like... At least twice a week since I started here thirty years ago. None of the Dark Papyri either know who the statue's supposed to be... Or if they do, not even tickling them with my knives will get them to tell me? He spends like... Hours just standing there two, sometimes even three days a week." Killer asked curiously, glancing at the taller Sans curiously.

"What makes you think I have any more of a clue as to what that statue is or why he spends so much time in this place any more than you do? Maybe he likes gardening. He could be sleeping or taking a nap. I ain't stupid enough to ask those sorts of questions." Hatchet grumbled, rolling his eye lights a little. "He's killed people for trespassing in the garden. Seriously, we should just leave him be."

"Ugh, fine. You're such a killjoy." Dust grumbled, pouting a little as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I mean... We're his favorites. Do you really think that he'd kill us just for trying to tell him that some of his administrative minions want his attention for something?"

"I don't know and I'm not going to risk it." Hatchet answered back stubbornly. There was no way that he was going to risk his people's food supply. "We can wait right here for Boss to be done. You can go back to the castle and torment one of the prisoners if you're bored."

“Nah, I think that I'll stay.” Killer answered after a moment. He glanced at Dust and the two of them nodded just a little bit, biting back grins. This was going to be the perfect opportunity to explore Boss's garden - Nightmare was going to be busy with whatever the Asgores and Toriels needed from him for hours - a perfect amount of time to meander through Nightmare's forbidden garden and maybe even check out the statue... Hopefully to find out just what was so special about it that he'd go to such lengths to keep others from messing with it. 

About an hour later, Boss made his way towards them, stilling as he apparently spotted them before abruptly teleporting in front of the three of them, his words clipped and irritated, his tentacles flicking in agitation behind him. "Why are you here?" 

Hatchet answered immediately. "There are several beings here to see you. They need to talk to you about something - what none of them would tell any one of the three of us. But none of them said that they were dealing with emergency situations, so we stayed here at the edge of the garden, since you've told us all repeatedly to never go in your garden. So we stayed right here, waiting to inform you of what they needed but not breaking your rules, boss." Dust and Killer nodded in agreement.

Nightmare sighed and rolled his visible eye light. "Very well, thank you for adhering to the rules that I have laid out for you." With that Nightmare teleported off - likely to the throne room in order to deal with his visitors.

After ten seconds of hesitation, Killer and Dust stepped into the garden simultaneously, wicked grins on their faces as they turned and looked at Hatchet. "You going to join us? Come on... You're just as curious about what's up with this garden, same as us. He's going to be busy for a while, and it's not likely that he'll return to the dead center of the garden after he's been here once today... You know that you wanna...." Dust teased, his eye lights shining with mischief. Killer had already ran off, deeper into the garden, vanishing from sight as Dust had talked, eager to explore this forbidden, beautiful place.

"I... Fine, stars damn it. But I get to decide when we leave, and neither of you get to argue about why. We never talk about what we see inside this thing and we don't take so much as a single berry or leaf from this garden." Hatchet grumbled, rubbing his face with on of his hands. He really didn't think that this was going to end well for them but... He was very curious about this place. He'd seen this garden grow from a few sparsely planted flowers to the huge, lovingly tended garden while he worked for Nightmare.

"Yeah, yeah. I promise - and I'll make sure that Killer won't try to eat or take anything from this place too." Dust answered with a bright grin, glad that Hatchet was coming in with them rather than obediently trotting off to boss to squeal on them for exploring this forbidden area. He ran after where he could sort-of sense Killer's magical presence, glee filling him at being able to misbehave like this.

~

The three of them eventually made it to the center of the garden. They carefully made their own paths through the field of gold and violet flowers up to the small stone statue. The statue appeared to be made in the likeness of... Someone who looked very similar to an Underswap Sans - with the rounded skull and slim frame. None of the three of them recognized the style of clothing that this statue was wearing - the sensible boots, the star-clasp that would have fastened the cape around his shoulders... The gloves... The expression on the statue's face - shock, horror and  _ betrayal _ was interesting. One of the statue's hands was raised partially in front of themself - as if trying to reach out to someone.

"Hey... They're wearing some sort of circlet on their head - the style reminds me kind of that golden crown that Nightmare wears occasionally... Not that the bastard ever explained where he'd gotten that in the first place." Dust noted, reaching out and lightly touching one of the swirls. "I wonder who carved this - it's done with a lot of detail."

"Hey, come look at the back of the statue - there's a design on the cape." Killer murmured, frowning a little as he could see a crescent moon within the star that was very much reminiscent of both the crown that Nightmare only ever wore on very formal occasions, and the crescent moon motif that was in the oldest sections of the castle. "I wonder who this is supposed to represent. Or, as I should probably say,  _ was _ ." Killer reached out and lightly patted the top of the strange statue Underswap Sans's (?) head.

"Would you two quit touching the statue? There's a good chance that boss has put some sort of alarm spell on this statue, to prevent anyone stupid enough to try to come in this far into his private guardians from trying to fuck with this thing. I don't know if you two haven't fucking noticed, or just don't care, but it's fucking obvious that this whole place is maintained and created with a great deal of affection and love." Hatchet hissed, grabbing both Killer and Dust by the back of their necks, taking a couple of steps back from the statue, about to teleport off when the three of them heard a deafening  _ crack _ .

They turned in unison to stare at the statue, horror filling them as the stone statue continued to crack - starting from the point at which Killer had touched it on the statue's head, lines beginning to criss-cross throughout it - the lines filled, strangely enough - with a brilliant golden light... Which started to burn brighter still, until it pulsed outwards, blinding all three Sanses as they threw themselves backwards to avoid flying chunks of stone, covering their faces in a desperate attempt to preserve some of their sight. All three of them can sense something approaching them. Something with power.

A gentle voice calls out from just above their heads from where Nightmare's top lieutenants are curled on the ground, light fingers brushing along the tops of their skulls. "Are you alright? It's okay... I won't hurt you..."

Hatchet is the first to uncurl from his protective ball, and he looks up at the being, his eye lights shrinking to pinpricks in utter confusion at what he sees. The statue turned into a person? There were little chunks of grey... Something. He would call them rocks, but it clearly wasn't if this being was trapped inside of it somehow. "I... Sorry. You startled us. Oi! Dust, Killer you can get up now."

The both of them do so, staring in mute shock at the small skeleton before them, unable to make heads or tails of what had just happened. Killer manages to get his voice working after several uncomfortably awkward seconds of staring. "What... What's your name?"

The skeleton had pale golden eye lights, and tilted his head a little bit in confusion, as if surprised by his question "I... My name is Dream... I've never seen any... Any other skeletons before.. Uhm, are you... K-Killer or Dust?" The other is shivering a little, despite the warmth of the day. "That's uhm... An unusual name..."

Not that he seems to be afraid of them, just as confused as they are. "I'm Killer... It's a nickname. All three of us are named Sans, but we're from different universes, and calling someone else by your own name gets really confusing very quickly. Dust is on my left - and Hatchet's the big man on the right." Killer responded after a moment, briefly tempted to scoop up the smaller skeleton and promise to protect him for the rest of his life. He shook off the strange impulse.

"I... Oh... Uhm..." The strange skeleton looked at the stunning garden around him, visibly confused. "I... Where are we? I've never seen a garden like this... But it's really exciting to meet people from other timelines! I've always wanted to wander to different worlds... But I... I couldn't..."

"Yeah, we can't move between timelines on our own, either. But boss can. It's... Fun. You... Don't recognize this garden? What was the last thing that you do remember, Dream?" Dust questioned curiously.

"I...." Dream frowned a little and wobbled before falling to the ground, his legs seemingly giving out beneath him, as he pressed his face into his hands, taking in a couple of shaky breaths in "I... I don't feel well..."

Hatchet was frowning a little - a golden circlet on his name. Confusion about where he was but with knowledge of other timelines. A thematic name. _Oh_ _hell._ "You... You wouldn't happen to know someone called Ni-" he began to question carefully when a black and cyan streak knocked the three of them to the ground, scooping up Dream.

It was Nightmare, who was holding on very tightly to Dream, one arm under the other's legs, the other wrapped around his chest. The other's tentacles were flailing wildly behind him, and he  _ hissed _ at the three of them, "He needs food! He hasn't eaten in centuries and is close to collapsing. Move you  _ idiots _ -!"

"Yes boss!" The three of them yelped, each scrambling to find the nearest food bearing plant, running as fast as their legs could carry them.

~

Hatchet came back a couple of seconds before Dust and Killer did, his arms full of peaches. He holds out the best and ripest among them to both Dream and Nightmare, making sure to move loudly enough so that both of them could hear him before he spoke. "Boss, I've got some food."

The peach was unceremoniously snatched from his hand by one of Nightmare's tentacles - and brought up very gently to Dream's mouth, the lord of darkness coaxing gently, "Dream... Please eat. You need to do so, and Hatchet is an excellent judge for what is edible."

"I... Okay..." Dream mumbled, opening his mouth and tiredly nibbling on the fruit. After he ate half of the peach, the smaller skeleton seemed to brighten up a little and grabbed the fruit with his own hands, finishing it quickly. "That's... Really tasty... Uhm, may I please have another? And what is that called? I've never had a fruit like that before." Dream turned to look at him and said with a sweet smile that felt like a physical blow against Hatchet's dark soul, "Thank you."

Hatchet handed Nightmare another peach as the dark king - his voice stunningly warm and gentle - explained, "It's called a peach. It grows on a certain kind of tree I found in another world. I've planted a few here in this garden. For you."

"Really? That's amazing, Moonlight!" Dream answered, the gold in his eye lights gaining strength as he continued to eat. It seemed to take the small skeleton a couple of moment to process everything that Nightmare had just said, and Dream murmured after a moment, voice full of care and surprised delight. "You... You made this place for me? That's... Thank you. It's very beautiful."

"Thank you, Dream. I am glad that you like the look of the garden so far. When you are stronger, I'd be delighted to explain what plants are here and which worlds I gathered them from." Nightmare promised gently, his voice full of a fondness and  _ love _ that none of them had entirely suspected that their boss would ever show so openly to anyone before. 

Just who the  _ fuck _ was Dream? He had called himself the guardian of positivity... But what did that really mean? Hatchet did his best to keep his curiosity off of his face - though he could see Dust openly scowling at Dream and Killer was restlessly moving from foot to foot. Generally that wasn't a good sign, but Hatchet was also pretty sure that neither of them were stupid enough to do anything to the little golden marshmallow when Boss was holding him. 

Dust looked about ready to say something when Dream spoke up again, looking very curiously at the three of them. "So who are these friends of yours, Nightlight? They did say their names... I think you were the one referred to as Dust?" He pointed at the correct lieutenant, smiling sweetly up at him. "I... I would like to try whatever kind of... Are those berries of some kind?"

Dust moved forwards, answering quietly, unsure as to whether or not he was allowed to speak, but being addressed directly by this very strange being who had his hands wrapped around their boss's soul and probably wouldn't ever let go, he supposed he should. "I... Don't know if these are berries? They're called grapes. They come in bunches like this - there are several different kinds of colors and one can also make wine out of certain kinds of grapes."

"Oh,  okay! ... What's wine?" Dream asked curiously, tilting his head a little as Nightmare grabbed a bunch of grapes from Dust with a tentacle and pressed it into the positive being's hands - clearly not wanting the other to move more than he absolutely had to.

"Wine is a kind of alcohol - it's fruit based. I don't care for it much, because it's surprisingly bitter- well, most of it can be. Some of it is nice, but it gives me a stomachache. Which is weird, because I don't  _ have _ a stomach." Dust answered after a moment, tilting his head a little at the other, and wondering just how fucking sheltered Nightmare had kept this monster before he'd somehow turned to stone.

"Oh... So perhaps it's fermented similar to mead, then, which the villagers did enjoy drinking." Dream murmured, frowning a little and making a bit of a face. He yawned (no one should ever be that cute, stars damn it) and stretched a little in Nightmare's grasp, nuzzling one of his shoulders, his eye lights starting to fuzz out.

"Dream... Dream you need to eat more." The Lord of Darkness ordered, his voice sounding more stern than it had since Dream had first woken up. "As for my friends... I found them in other worlds. They were suffering and alone, so I brought them and some people from Hatchet's timeline here... They have issues with getting the right amount of food to feed everyone in his timeline - or they used to. But he helps me make sure that his people get plenty to eat."

That was... Certainly a creatively truthful explanation for how Nightmare had found the three of them, but like hell were they going to be the ones to disagree. Killer smiled at the small skeleton and murmured, "Dust and I don't have anyone left in our timelines... We were awfully lonely and stuck before Nightmare came by and brought us here." He looked like he was going to say more, but Nightmare shot him a warning look over Dream's head that the other did not see or notice.

The smaller skeleton fussed a little, opening his mouth with a pout as several grapes were unceremoniously shoved in by a clearly very worried Nightmare. Why the other was so agitated, none of the three of them could tell. They could sense Dream's magic - not that he seemed to have much. "Mnn... Fine... I'm just... So tired. And my neck hurts from.... From..." His eye lights went out completely and he went entirely still in Nightmare's grasp, before bursting into tears and clinging to the taller skeleton, stuttering out quietly "Please... Ni-Nightmare... N-Nightmare p-please I wasn't... I'm not... I'm not going to f-fight you... I-I wa-wasn't then I... I just... I-I couldn't..."

The calm smile on Nightmare's face vanished and he curled his arms protectively around Dream, pressing a couple of kisses to the top of the other's head, and murmuring soothingly, "I know... I know that you had to eat the last positive apple in order to ensure that there was some semblance of a balance... I deeply regret hurting you, love. I was... I wasn't in control when I lashed out at you, and for that I am deeply sorry. I never wanted to hurt you and the... The fact that I  _ had _ still haunts me to this day."

_ What _ ? From how lovey-dovey and gentle Boss had been, the thought that Nightmare would lash out at the golden marshmallow was... surprising, to say the least. But all three of them were very much aware of the other's temper as well - and from what Dream was implying, he'd done something to disobey the other - and if Boss hadn't been in full control of his magic at the time...

_ Ouch _ . But perhaps that was why Nightmare had been creating this garden for centuries apparently? As an apology for turning the other to stone?  It was one hell of a gesture, especially as Boss himself worked in the garden - few if any of the dark Papyri were allowed to tend to this place - it was something that Nightmare did himself...

Dream spoke up after a moment, his voice shaky, but the other was still clinging to Nightmare with a desperate strength, as if frightened the other would vanish if he let go. "I accept your apology, Nightmare... I..." The other seemed to lose focus and he yawned a little, exhausted still, although from what, neither Hatchet, Dust or Killer could guess. Dream seemed to have almost no magic - then again, that might be due to the fact that he'd been trapped by some sort of stasis spell for centuries. It had probably fed on his magic in part to keep him immobile and unable to see or hear anything.

"You need to continue to eat, to gain strength." Nightmare pressed, carefully feeding Dream a couple of grapes until the smaller skeleton started to eat on his own again.

"I just... wanna sleep... That should help... Right?" The other fussed, pouting unfairly adorably up at Nightmare as he grumpily ate.

"It should - but only after you've eaten a fair amount first. I don't want you to go into a coma because you hadn't eaten enough first." Nightmare murmured, his voice low and filled with concern. "Particularly since there isn't a great deal of positivity in this world for you to draw upon while you rest."

Wait... Did that mean that boss - as the _guardian_ _of negativity_ as he had introduced himself to them long ago gained some sort of power or strength from the misery and suffering of others? That... Explained a lot though. Not that any one of them were going to speak up. This was already weird enough as it was and they should probably just -

"Killer, what sort of food did you get? And... Uhm, I'd like to apologize for kind of ignoring the three of you and just talking to Nightmare. Thank you for getting me food... And you shouldn't call your friends idiots, Nighty. You should apologize for being mean." Dream scolded as he finished the grapes, startling the three of them for having the gall to actually  _ sass _ Nightmare to his face like that.

"I grabbed a bunch of... Their either called hazelnuts or something that starts with a P." Killer had cracked their shells open already, to reveal their tasty meat inside. He'd also had a couple before he'd come back to boss. He awkwardly handed a good fistful to Dream, shuffling closer and felt... Calmer as he gave the other the food.

Dream smiled sweetly up at him and for the briefest moment, Killer was seized with the desire to seriously swear that he would protect and care for the other as long as he lived. There was something so... warm and almost vulnerable about the other. Something that made him  _ precious _ and clearly someone to protect. The feeling left when he stepped back to where the other two were, and he shook his head a little "Gah..." The hell was that?

Nightmare smirked and hummed a little as Dream ate, remarking lightly, "Your aura is starting to come back - And they were being idiots - I had asked them not to come into these gardens and they did so anyways. On the other hand, they might have had an unintentional hand in you breaking free of the stasis spell, so I suppose that I shouldn't be too angry... I don't allow anyone else into this place - at least while you were trapped and vulnerable to be taken by those who might think that you'd be safer with them. Or would try to break the magical stone that you were encased in, under the assumption that it would free, rather than harm you." That had been one of his worst fears, alongside Dream waking up and immediately fleeing him before he had a chance to apologize for attacking the other. Possibly even being found by  _ Ink _ or one of his allies and turned against him.

Dream;s eye lights shrunk to pinpricks and he buried his face into one of the other's shoulders, voice shaking a little "I don't want to be separated from you, Nightmare. I... I remember how awful and violent the... the Villagers’ emotions were and how they... They wouldn't listen or calm down.. How much they... they  _ hated _ you... Why didn't you tell me that they felt so awfully towards you? I would have insisted that they leave the both of us and The Tree - far enough that they wouldn't be able to hurt or harass you."

"I didn't want to burden you with the knowledge, and they might have tried to convince you to go with them, as they were..." Nightmare began, his voice light and gentle, as if he were trying to hint at something, but not wanting to say it outright.

"... They were addicted to my aura, weren't they? They liked feeling happy all the time... Which they only did when I was in the village with them and you weren't with me to balance things out... 'm sorry I didn't know that I was making things  _ worse _ ." Dream apologized, sounding close to tears.

"Dream, listen to me. It. Was not. Your fault. That they were addicted to your presence.  You have no more control over the mortals' reaction to your aura than I do." Nightmare responded sternly, frowning a little and bopping Dream lightly on the forehead with one of his tentacles. The lord of negativity took the food that his top lieutenants had gathered for them and ordered, "Send the visitors in the castle away. Dream is low on energy and their presence will not help him recover faster. He and I will either be out here in the gardens or in my... our personal rooms for the rest of the week. Contact us only if there is an actual emergency, understood?"

"Yes Boss." Hatchet responded, grabbing Dust and Killer before either of them could try to remind Boss that he had planned to invade a particularly obnoxious Underfell world later this week. His newly awakened - currently exhausted and weakened - mate clearly took priority.

He let the both of them go as soon as they were outside of the throne room, and Killer scowled. “Hey! We were going to roll over an Underfell! That was going to be a lot of fun and I’d be able to get some really fucking awesome chocolate! Which we should probably do anyways because of how mouthy their fuckin’ Sans was. I was looking forwards to  _ playing _ with him. But nooo, his creampuff of a mate had to suddenly wake up, and I’m pretty sure he has an Emotional Aura like boss does. When I gave him food I felt all mushy and shit. He’s probably playing merry hell with Boss, making sure that the other’s wrapped firmly around his delicate little fucking fingers... if he even knows what he’s doing on purpose.”

“Your eye lights are very green right now. I could read that little marshmallow like a book - he’s as sweet as a young Underswap Sans - he doesn’t have a clue about the power that he has over boss, I’m sure of it... which means that one of us is going to be stuck on babysitting duty to make sure that he doesn’t wander into the wrong sort of person.” Dust teased, smirking at the other, knowing about Killer’s little crush on the boss.

“I don’t use my eye lights, you asshole. So how the  _ fuck _ would you know if they’re green or not” Killer hissed, glowering at Dust and tempted to lash out at the other. So what if he had a bit of a thing for Boss - it wasn’t as if Dust and Hatchet  _ didn’t _ . Nightmare was powerful, charming and dangerous being. He gave Killer access to idiots to murder and torment as he pleased… And to have this strange interloper suddenly appear out of nowhere and get so much of Nightmare’s attention without the other raging and furious at him was… Distressing. 

“... I think that the both of you might be underestimating and overestimating Dream in the wrong ways. Boss wouldn’t fall for someone who manipulated him - he’s able to  _ spot _ shit like that in ways that none of us ever will.” Hatchet countered with a shake of his head “It’s just that sunshine has next to no magic and has no idea what’s going on… I suspect that he’s much more than we’ve seen. We shouldn’t discuss this in a public place, though. We need to deal with the visitors.” The other two grumbled and rolled their eyes. Killer smirked widely for a moment as he swaggered into the throne room, delighted to terrorize the local rulers into fleeing home.


	5. Chapter 5

It was incredibly strange to see how their world had changed in the  _ three hundred years _ that he had apparently been trapped in stone. The sky - when clear - was a dark rust red during the day, and a strange violet-grey at night, with only a couple of stars that dotted the sky. When it was foggy, it was a dense, impenetrable grey mist that seemed to sap all of the light and energy out of everything that it touched. Or so Dream felt, in the three months since he had woken up. Nightmare had changed as well - he was... Dream shuddered a little as he recalled a recent memory.

_ Dream had just finished baking a dozen hand pies filled with the meat that Hatchet preferred most. The positive spirit didn't much care for the taste of it, but he dutifully followed the recipe that he'd been given - including the amount of spices, and they looked and smelled really, really good. There had been some pie dough left over, and both because Dream knew that Hatchet really hated it when food - any kind of food - was wasted, and because he was a little bored while waiting for the hand pies to cook and had already cleaned up all the things that he'd used in preparing the dish, he had rolled out the pie dough and used a cookie cutter to make a bunch of butterfly-shaped cookies - making some chocolate frosting as he knew that Killer had a sweet tooth as well, and planned to share them with the other. _

_ Dream had been very careful about the amount of magic that he used in making the cookies - as he wasn't following a strict recipe - and the last thing he needed was to accidentally create another living confection that followed him around for a couple of weeks before it  _ died  _ and crumbled into crumbs, the magic sustaining it spent. He'd even found a small bag of very delicious mint candies to put on the cookies for eyes - they were light and sweet and melted in his mouth like butter. Dream had put the cookies on a plate and went off in search of Killer, having set the hand pies on a cooling rack so that their undersides wouldn't burn. _

_ He had been half-way across the castle - as the other was in one of the sparring rooms, when he felt a wave of  _ fury _ hit him with enough force to cause the positive spirit to stumble and fall, collapsing against a nearby wall, his limbs refusing to move. Dream was barely able to catch the cookies before they fell onto the floor and break apart, crawling forwards on his hands and knees to do so. He shuddered and groaned, coughing as he slumped over, a second wave of pitch black wrath slamming into him and rendering him completely unable to move. A soft sound of pain left the positive spirit before he could stop himself as a third wave of outrage hit him, and Dream instinctively summoned a shield to try to protect himself. He blinked blearily as he stared at the nearly transparent golden dome that surrounded him, having never seen this before - but it was clearly made from his own magic - and was taking a frightening amount of magic to maintain in this deeply negative space. _

_ It shattered and vanish as a fourth wave of ire hit the positive spirit, and Dream realized that the darkness at the edges of his vision signaled impending unconsciousness. With the last of his waning strength, Dream forced himself to teleport close to the source of the anger, his eye lights shrinking to pinpricks as he realized that he was in the hallway just before Nightmare's throne room. The commander of the Dark Papyri guards who protected the entrance came rushing forwards, worry in the other’s aura which caused Dream to whimper a little - the extra negative emotions not helping the weakened positive spirit whatsoever. "Your m-majesty! What's wrong?" They spluttered, dropping their weapon as she caught him as he fell forwards. _

_ "T-Too... m-much ne-negativity... N-Need to calm... the p-person down..." Dream managed to say, determined not to pass out, even as he found himself wholly incapable of any further movement on his own. None of the dark Papyri moved or spoke - but the fear and alarm in their emotive auras caused the positive spirit to frown - they knew who he was talking about. "Please... Into... the throne room... I need... To calm this person down." _

_ Before any of them could speak, Nightmare's voice - louder and more threatening than he'd ever heard it, even when the other had been trying to get the last positive apple from him. "IF ANY OF YOU DO SOMETHING SO STUPID EVER AGAIN, I WILL MAKE YOUR FINAL MOMENTS A MISERABLE ETERNITY OF AGONY. YOU WILL BEG ME FOR DEATH, AND IT WILL BE A MERCY I GRANT YOU SLOWLY. IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"  _

_ Another wave of fury hit Dream as the other screamed, and he shuddered a little, a small whimper left his lips. He called out as loudly as he could, weakly reaching out for his furious mate, curling in on himself as the Dark Papyrus who was holding him shifted a little, the fear and concern in their aura rising a great deal. "Ni-Nightmare? Wh-What's wrong?" _

_ Some of the rage vanished - replaced by confusion and surprise. Nightmare teleported in front of the both of them and rushed towards the both of them, grabbing Dream out of the Dark Papyrus's grip, checking him over and frowning, worry filling his aura. "Dream... Why is your MP so low? What happened?" _

_ "T-Too much negativity... P-Please calm down, Nighty..." The positive spirit confessed, golden eye lights mostly fuzzed out, shaking a little at the unexpected wrath and fury he could still sense within the other, completely taken aback. _

_ Panic and uncertainty filled Nightmare’s aura, but his other half started to do some breathing exercises that caused the dark emotions to ease. “I… I am sorry I didn’t realize that me losing my temper like that would cause you harm. I’ll… I’ll do all I can to not hurt your like this again.” The other pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead, surprise, guilt and worry in the other’s emotional aura. “... Rest, Dream. We can enjoy the cookies together later, alright?” _

_ “I… Okay…” Dream realized that he  _ was _ very tired. He yawned and nuzzled into his beloved. “Mngh… Cuddles, please? At least while I fall asleep?” _

_ Nightmare nodded, his aura still worried and unsure, but also filled with love and care. “Of course. I’ll take you to our bedroom so that you can rest properly.” The negative spirit had then held him a little bit closer and teleported the both of them to their private rooms. _

Dream had tentatively asked the other later, what had caused him to be so furious. Nightmare had answered - but only after a really long time - knocking on one of the wooden bed posts of their bed, and starting a game of Confession Time, explaining that he’d lost his temper. It had been caused by a couple of his people very nearly been followed back to this Universe by a couple of dangerous enemies - which might have endangered the lives of the mortals who lived in this world, as well as putting Dream in danger. Nightmare was  _ terrified _ of losing him to these mysterious enemies of his. Dream had been wanting to explore other world, but he hadn’t asked to after that, knowing that asking bothered his beloved and not wanting to make the other worry that he’d wander off on his own if not allowed to wander at Nightmare’s side.

That had been a couple of months ago. Dream very much wanted to explore the wider multiverse - and not in the least bit because he knew that both of them could create portals. Nightmare was able to open portals to worlds that had negativity in them -  the darker the world, the easier that he could traverse into them, and the stronger he was... So the reverse was true for Dream himself. The positive spirit mentally shook himself as he focused on his surroundings, smiling a little as he continued to pluck more of the ripe berries in the garden that his beloved had created for him. It really was quite beautiful.

He shivers a little as a cold breeze stirs through the berry bushes, and Dream glances upwards, frowning a little as he notices the very dark and ominous looking clouds that were sweeping across the rust-red sky. Dream had been gathering as much of the edible fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs and spices as he could for the past couple of weeks - as one thing that hadn't changed was the weather, and from what he'd been able to tell, they were going to be hit with a bad storm soon - and the last thing that he wanted was for all of the lovely, magical food to go to waste because no one gathered it up first. Not that Nightmare allowed anyone but the two of them into this place still - although  _ why _ he was so stubborn about it, Dream had yet to pry from his beloved.

The positive spirit knew that he had another three-four hours if he was lucky, less than one if he wasn't. Still, Dream moved as swiftly as he could, gathering the last of the berries that he could find  - making sure to separate them by type in his inventory. He teleported just in front of the castle gates before running inside as the rain chased him inwards, heading to the kitchens to begin preparing the fresh produce so that they wouldn't spoil. Killer was currently sitting on top of one of the fridges, hissing a little and swiping his dagger at Dust - who was attempting to take some of the chocolate clutched tightly in the former's other hand. Hatchet was glaring at the both of them and rubbing his temples with his hands.

"Uhm... What's going on here?" Dream called out, confusion and concern filling him as he hoped to diffuse the situation before they could hurt each other. He knew that it irritated and worried Nightmare when they fought like this.

"Dream! I st- bought some chocolate in and Underfell AU and Killer took it from me! He won't let me eat  _ my _ chocolate and it's not fair!" Dust protested, lobbing a bone at Killer, probably with the intention of pinning the other in place.

Killer dodged and batted the bone back at Dust with his knife and growled back "Like hell! This is my chocolate I got from a Havenfell, and that jackass is trying to steal the chocolate that is rightfully  _ mine _ ! If he wants chocolate, he has to go ask boss to open a portal so he can get some of his own."

Dream happened to have 180 cocoa pods from the six cocoa trees that Nightmare had planted in the garden - which from what he'd read up on how to make chocolate... Which would make between thirteen and eighteen pounds of chocolate. "You know... If you help me  _ make _ chocolate, I will give you a portion of it. Nightlight planted cocoa trees in the garden and the pods were ready for harvest, so I grabbed them. And a whole bunch of other stuff, but I can't make food in the kitchen if you’re fighting..."

Both Dust and Killer were suddenly in front of him, their eye lights wide with delight and curiosity "Soo, what do we need to do? No, no more fighting here, Boss Dream!" Hatchet also looked curious, and the tallest of Nightmare's friends/top lieutenants moved closer as well.

Dream chuckled a little, his eye lights shining brightly with the others' enthusiasm. "I've been doing some research, and-" He explained the process of turning cocoa pods into chocolate, finishing with, "All told, it's going to take a couple of weeks, but I'm sure that the end process will be worth it - besides, I have an earlier batch of cocoa beans that are ready to process - he planted two different kinds of cocoa trees. We also need to process the rest of the food - there's a bad storm coming soon and I didn't want the food to spoil."

The other three skeletons nodded, and Dream begun to pull out the fresh ingredients, laying them out on the table - each of them working quickly to weave preservation spells on the incredibly tasty ingredients. They were about half-way done when a loud, low rumble seemed to shake the castle to it's very foundations. Hatchet, Killer and Dust paused for a moment before shrugging a little - it must be one of the occasional thunderstorms that came through this AU.

Dream on the other hand, froze up, a frightened squeak leaving him as his eye lights vanished. He trembled a little and hunched on himself at the second clap of thunder that rumbled around them seconds later... And at the third, Dream ran from the room, his breathing fast and shallow. "No... No no no no!" He had to get somewhere safe, it was too open - too dark and negativity pressed against him from all sides. He had to- to escape. He had to find Nightmare and they had to find someplace calmer - before... Before... The positive spirit skidded to a halt as he stared up at his beloved in horror - the other's form dripping with corruption and malice, the frightened supplicants kneeling before the throne of skulls and death "Ah!" He exclaimed, teleporting off and hissing in shock as wards slammed down around him, pinning him down in the corridor, even as he clawed and scratched at them with his hands and magic, desperate to escape, the concussive rumbling thunder filling his head and his soul with  _ fear _ . 

He shoots the rune binding him in place with a bow and arrow he doesn't remember ever possessing, stumbling forwards and nearly falling as the bonds keeping him in place snap and shatter into nothingness. He has - he has to escape. Dream tugs at the  _ thing _ pressing against his neck, terrified that everything is about to go black as cold nothingness will envelop his mind, trapping him in a dark, empty void where he can only dimly sense his other half occasionally, unable to see, move, hear or speak.

The guardian of positivity continues to flee, dodging the grasping hands of the corrupted beings who are trying to surround him - their voices and negative, confused and confusing emotions that he can sense from them battering at his senses. He shoves his way clear of them- dodging the slick tentacles that will choke and consume his consciousness again if they touch him, and a golden circle that promises safety appears before him as he runs through, and he hears it snap shut, even as familiar-strange voices yell for him to come back, echoing in his head as Dream runs through it.

He blinks twice as he staggers through the snow - startled at the sudden drop in temperature. Strange mortals all stare at him and Dream focuses on two of them.

They're skeletons - one of whom looks like an uncorrupted version of a dark Papyrus. the other looks... a lot like himself? He blinks a little - the light blue clothing, rounded smile. Something presses against the back of his frightened and exhausted mind "Oh... You're... a Swap... Sans..." He collapses face forwards into the snow, the shock of the increased positivity around him too much for him to handle at the moment - particularly since it's been so terribly negative in his home timeline for so very long.


	6. New Friends?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream meets some new people. Are they friends?

Dream groaned a little as he stirred, his eye lights activating as he pushed himself up - realizing that he was sitting on a couch as he stared at the unfamiliar room he was sitting in. The positive spirit felt... He felt much stronger than he had since... Since Nightmare had consumed the apples and killed most of the villagers in an attempt to protect the both of them from their lethal intentions. He sensed a couple of people in the room off of the main one on the first floor of this place. He could see the checkered floor and slowly got up to his feet, startled by how much positivity he could feel in the area around him. It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, but... The beings that he could sense around him had a great deal more Hope in their auras than he had gotten used to sensing. Dream silently made his way over to the other room, noting that it was a kitchen.

The Sans was in the middle of making something - swiftly chopping up an onion as he continued to speak, "-and I know that our visitor is a little strange, but I'd like to talk to them before we pull any of the others here. We don't want to overwhelm them - you  _ know _ what Ink can be like."

"That's true." A tall, sweater-clad Papyrus acknowledged, before countering, "But how many people can you name who can open portals between universes? And they had some of Nightmare's goop on their cape, and his magic  _ all over them _ ."

Both of the mortal skeleton's emotive auras were filled with concern, worry and uncertainty. Dream was unsure whether or not he should speak up and reveal himself to be awake... Or just slowly slink out of their house and go home. He shuddered a little as he remembered the  _ awful _ thunderstorm that still might be rocking the castle, thoroughly embarrassed by his reaction... But... He'd always been afraid of thunder - and how awful his last memory with a thunderstorm had been, Dream really didn't want to go back until the storm had passed. He hoped that Nightmare would understand. The positive spirit walked back to the couch, deciding that he should probably call out - let them believe that he hadn't overheard their conversation. Dream was concerned that he might have found some of his other half's enemies... Then again, most people who spoke of Nightmare were rather terrified of him, unfortunately. He cleared his nonexistent throat and called out, "Uhm... He-Hello? Is someone here? Where... Where am I?" Those were all legitimate questions he had.

The Sans immediately teleported over, his eye lights bright, cheerful stars as he exclaimed exuberantly, offering the other one of his hands, "Hello! I am the Magnificent Sans, although other  _ travelers _ have called me Blue or Blueberry - call me whatever you like. I also use he/him pronouns. What about you, friend?" He was beaming brightly, and the other's aura was filled with curiosity and a bit of concern.

"It's wonderful to meet you, Sans the magnificent." Dream greeted with a small smile as he shook one of the other's hands firmly "My name is Dream, guardian of positivity. I use male pronouns as well."

Blue blinked at him once, the curiosity in the other's aura increasing. "What do you mean by  _ guardian of positivity _ ? You looked like you were moving in a really big hurry before you face planted in the snow. Oh! And you're in my and my brother's home, in Snowdin."

The positive spirit had been told what the history of the alternate worlds that Nightmare had visited were - and many of them followed several core themes - the humans and monsters had a war that the monsters lost, who were then trapped by a powerful magical soul that required the magical equivalent of seven human mages' souls to unseal, which was too much for said monsters to overcome themselves. Which is why he didn't pester the other with questions about what exactly he meant by Snowdin. It was unfortunate that either the final human to fall underground had yet to come... Or that they were toying with their time-travelling powers, finding it to be a  _ game _ of sorts to learn about the monsters through doing varying different actions. He hoped it wasn't the latter... 

Though Killer and Dust had suffered awfully at the hands of cruel and capricious humans until they'd snapped and destroyed them, trapped in the empty remains of their timelines until Nightmare rescued them. He was... Unsure if he should explain. "I... I am... That's kind of difficult to explain. But I can create positive feelings within other people around me - I can't not, actually. I try to help my other half to keep the emotive balance of the multiverse. I've only recently broken free of the stasis spell that kept me bound for centuries, but the two of us are doing our best to bring peace and prosperity to the multiverse, one AU or Timeline at a time." He answered earnestly, smiling sweetly up at Blue as he spoke. "... From what I've gathered, my mate was rather... harsh with the timelines he had contact with before I woke up. But I've been encouraging him to be more merciful. It's... It's a work in progress, but I really think that it's going well."

The Papyrus asked, leaning against the door frame and tilting his head curiously at him. "Who's this mate of yours? And... You don't have to answer this question if you don't want to, it is kind of personal... Why were you put in a stasis spell?"

"I... He... He is the guardian of Negativity... As for how... I... He'd just gained a  _ lot _ of power, and I refused to give him the final Positive Apple, consuming it instead, so that there would be at least some positive feelings left in the multiverse... He... He was lost in his base instincts and lashed out at me, trapping me in the stasis spell. B-But he didn't mean to do that! He's apologized for hurting and trapping me." Dream explained quickly, before going quiet. His eye lights widened a little as he sensed their intense distress, anger and uncertainty. He probably shouldn't have said all of that. Nightmare had mentioned that he had dangerous enemies - there were the rebels in some of the timelines that he was helping who disliked having a stranger coming out of nowhere and  _ daring _ to tell them what to do in exchange for their freedom and/or resources that they needed in order to thrive well. Time to change topics! "How long was I passed out on your couch? Oh, and I've been really rude to you. Uhm, what's your name?" He glanced at the Papyrus curiously, hopeful that he would be able to deflect the topic.

"... What's your mate's name?" The Papyrus pressed, frowning a little at him, his arms folded over his chest "And... I'm not sure that being turned to stone is just something that a simple apology can fix. At least it sure as hell wouldn't for me... I'm Papyrus, though I've also been called Stretch or Honey."

Blue frowned a little at his brother, glaring at him a little bit. "Surely if someone truly meant it when they apologized, they should be forgiven... Oh! You've only been sleeping on the couch for about ten minutes. From how low your MP was, I thought that you'd be asleep for hours." 

"There are some things that are unforgivable, Sans." Stretch glowered, shifting a little and huffing. "But I know that you will disagree with me on this, so I don't think we should get into that particular argument again."

Dream was pretty sure that there was a story behind that one - especially from the way that both of the brothers were glaring at one another. The tension was really thick between the two of them, so he spoke up quietly, "Oh, in a place like this, I bounce back pretty quickly, haha..." It's nice to be in a place where there are this many positive feelings in the world around him. He's a great deal more energetic than he's been in months. 

"What do you mean by that? Also... Are you okay? You looked really distressed when you first appeared through the portal." Blue asked curiously, concern eclipsing the other's irritation at the odd dig at forgiveness from Stretch. 

"I... I gather energy from the positive feelings of others, so the more upbeat people are around me - and not just immediately around me, but in the portion of the world I am in, the more quickly I regain MP, and the more energy I have to use before I need to eat or sleep." Dream explained with a bright smile. "And yeah, I-I'm fine. It's just... There was a really bad thunderstorm going on in my AU and I... I r-really... I'm afraid of thunder..." Dream admitted shyly, a light blush appearing on his face as he glanced away from both of the brothers, feeling silly. "... Some really bad things happened the last time I was in a thunderstorm and the... Th-The panic and fear caused me to run away..." He probably should go back home but... There was every chance that the thunderstorm was still going on and... Dream shuddered a little. He doubted that he would react any better now to the thunderstorm than he had a little over ten minutes ago.

"Thunder... Wait! Does that mean you're from a... A surface AU?" Blue murmured, his eye lights widening a little before turning into stars, an eager grin appearing on his face. Such worlds were relatively rare, at least from what he had encountered as a battle-companion of Ink's.

"Yes, and as far as I know, there was never a monster-human war in my timeline. Then again, I've heard much about the power that Determined Humans have in other worlds, which is so strange to me, as even the most powerful Determination Mage was unable to turn back time in that AU, and that still holds true." Dream murmured quietly, tilting his head a little. Then again, he and Nightmare were the most powerful magical beings - human or monster - in their AU... And that seemed to hold true in the worlds that Nightmare had visited. Then again, neither of them were human nor monster, though their physical forms were skeletal in nature. Dream had asked Nightmare if there were other guardians - but his beloved had gotten a strange look in his eyes and refused to answer.

"I... Okay. There's a lot to unpack in what you just said... Do you think that your presence here prohibits any determined humans from Resetting this timeline?" Stretch asked, shifting a little bit closer to him, fascination, surprise and a quiet sort of desperation in his magical aura that caused Dream to frown a little in concern.

"Brother... They  _ promised _ not to do so again, and they've been trying really hard to be good! I know that they can make it this time." Blue responded, though he too was curious and hopeful.

"I don't know - but Moonbeam's fought Determined humans in the past - had their soul in his hand, even as they tried to reset, and they were unable to do so in his presence. He's stronger than I am, though." Dream answered as honestly as he could, choosing to use one of the nicknames he had for his beloved, rather than calling the other by his true name. Part of him was worried that he might have accidentally found some of his beloved's enemies who weren't part of the other's empire... And calling him Moonbeam made Nightmare sputter a little and blush cutely, so that's what Dream was going to go with. At least until he figured out if they were friends or foes.

“Moonbeam, who is that?” Honey asked curiously, tilting his head a little at the positive spirit as he continued to observe Dream closely.

“Hmm? Oh, He's my mate.” Dream explained with a smile.

“Awww…. Did you know that your eye lights turn into little hearts briefly when you mention your mate? It's really sweet.” Blue pointed, his own eye lights turning into excited stars, his hands coming up to his mouth as he beamed happily at the positive guardian.

"Hey... Blue, I really think that Dream should probably meet Ink - I mean... Ink is the guardian of the AUs - I'm sure that they should talk for a bit... Unless - Have you and your mate already met him? He's a pretty unforgettable guy." Stretch suggested, a small smile on his face. 

Dream shook his head, and answered honestly, "I've never heard of Ink before... But this is the first time I've ever left my home timeline. I've known that I've been capable of it for months now, I just... haven't." He'd very much wanted to explore the worlds - ideally with Nightmare at his side, but the other had wanted him to wait until he was back at full strength in order to do so... And when the negative guardian had some time to do so, as Dream was well aware of just how  _ busy _ Nightmare was.

"Oh? Is there a particular reason why you haven't left before? Or were you just not in the mood?" Stretch questioned, the easygoing smile still on his face, though there was suspicion in the other's emotional aura.

The positive guardian hesitated for a moment before answering honestly, "I've been trying to catch up on everything that's happened in the three hundred or so years I was trapped in a stasis spell. N-Moonbeam's been very busy while I was stuck and I've been learning what he's been up to!" Dream nearly called Nightmare by his true name, but managed to hold off from doing so as he still was unsure as to whether or not these people were allies, enemies or were unknowing of who his mate was. From what he had gathered, Nightmare had hidden information about who Dream had been while he'd been trapped as a statue, in order to protect him when he was in an incredibly vulnerable state.

"I... I'm not sure, Paps." Blue responded with a small sigh. "Ink's usually quite busy..."

"Awh... You can at least text him? I'm sure that Dream'll be here for the next couple of hours at least - or however long that thunderstorm in his home timeline's supposed to last. I don't mind having someone crashing on the couch for a while. It wouldn't be the first time." Stretch pointed out, still smiling a little. "... Also were you able to tell your mate that you were going to be headed out, or did the sound from the thunder startle you too badly? You should probably call or text him to tell him that you're safe, but out of the universe."

Dream nodded, checking his pockets for the phone that Nightmare had given him recently, hoping that he hadn't forgotten the fascinating little device. The ringtone that he'd spent time picking out for Nightmare started to play... In the couch? Dream carefully pulled up one of the cushions and sure enough, there it was. He told the pair of mortals, "Moon's calling me... I'll take this outside." 

He grabbed his phone and walked outside, noting the monsters milling about and making his way to the back of Blue and Stretch's house. Dream answered as soon as he was out of sight of everyone. "Hey Nighty..."

"Dream, where are you?" Nightmare asked, his voice tense and concerned. 

Dream could hear a distant, if muffled rumble of thunder and shivered a little as he answered honestly, "I'm in an Underswap AU... I've been talking to the Sans and Papyrus for a little bit. They're really nice! I... I'm sorry for vanishing suddenly... I-I just..."

"You're afraid of thunder." The negative spirit sighed, completing Dream's sentence before he could say it. "I know. I was trying to reach you as soon as I heard the first rumble... But you were moving too quickly and you vanished before I could try to calm you down a little. I've been texting you the whole time... I was worried that you might have forgotten your phone."

"I... Sorry. I don't know why I didn't hear my phone go off. Then again, I woke up not too long ago. Apparently I passed out in the snow in Snowdin, but I'm feeling a lot better now... I-I just... I don't know how I'll react if I try to go home before the storm's over." Dream admitted quietly, shaking a little as he heard another muffled rumble of thunder, and quietly hating the fact that the loud sound was still able to affect him so much. He shoved away the awful memories the sound was bringing up. Things were  _ better _ now. Nightmare had apologized for attacking him after he'd lost control of himself due to the Negative apples that he'd desperately consumed in order to protect them both.

"... Do the Sans and Papyrus have nicknames that they use when dealing with travelers from outside their world,  or were they taken by surprise at your appearance?" Nightmare asked, his voice neutral - but kind of like he was trying to make himself stay calm.

"The Sans also called himself Blue and Blueberry, and the Papyrus said he's also called Honey and Stretch! Also they mentioned another guardian, by the name of Ink?" Dream answered earnestly. "Do you know who that is?"

Nightmare growled a little at the name and responded, "I need you to go to the giant set of purple doors at the far end of the snowy section of the underground - Hatchet will be waiting for you there. Ink, Blue and Stretch are rather  _ dangerous _ enemies of mine, and I do not know what they will do if they find out just how dear and precious you are to me, or if they get even so much as a hint of that."

Alarm shot through Dream at the other’s words and he nodded a little before realizing that the other wouldn’t be able to see him do that, and answered verbally. “Of course! Wh-what about once I get to Hatchet?”

“He’ll show you the coordinates to a safe AU for you to head to and stay until the storm passes. I'll come and get you.” Nightmare responded, voice warm and gentle. “I wish I could be with you right now, but…”

“You mentioned that you had to meet with several AU leaders today.” Dream finished quietly, understanding that the other was really busy “I hope that I didn't make too much of a scene…” He was already starting to move through the small town as he talked to his other half. Part of him felt guilty about just vanishing on Blue and Stretch, but Nightmare said they were enemies. The younger man wasn't going to allow himself to be used against the other if he could at all help it.

“No, I was able to smooth things over with them fairly easily.” Nightmare reassured him. “... And I would rather you stay on the phone until you get to Hatchet, but the trek through the forest outside of Snowdin can be long. Also there are sentries posted at regular intervals for humans, so watch out.”

“Okay, I should be able to sense them before they detect me,  but I'll be careful.” Dream promised, a small smile on his face. He could just tell them that one of his mate's friends had arrived in the AU and the two of them would be on their way- as far as he could tell, they were unaware that he even knew Nightmare… But one or both of them might insist on meeting his mate's friend... Or they would be offended that he'd not taking their offer of hospitality as he wouldn't want to inform him that he was saying no because Nightmare was an enemy of theirs as that was just  _ asking _ for trouble - which Dream did his best not to try to do if he could at all help it. "I'll text you as soon as I reach Hatchet, alright?"

"I... That sounds reasonable." Nightmare answered after a moment, relief obvious to Dream in the other's voice. "I love you darling. Stay safe. I'll talk to you as soon as I can."

Guilt tugged at his soul, and Dream started to move a little bit faster, doing his best to stay out of the main road through town as he answered quietly, "I love you too, Nightmare. I... I-I can try to come home..."

"No, the storm's getting a lot worse, and while the enchantments on the castle will ensure that everyone and everything within will be protected from the elements... The sounds of the storm raging around the place will continue to be heard and I... I don't want to feel your distress and terror when there's another answer," the negative guardian answered immediately and firmly. "Get to Hatchet as soon as you can, and I'll come by when I can - either after the storm has passed, or once I've finished my duties for the day. Whichever comes first."

"I... Okay. See you soon, I hope!" Dream responded, hearing the other end the call before starting to run at a pace that he could keep up for hours if he needed, glancing around to make sure that no one was following him before he finished getting through snowdin. He stopped at the very rickety looking bridge, staring at the far side and teleporting to the other side of it and continuing to jog quickly. He hid in a snow poff as a large, armored monster went lumbering past him, and he teleported to the other side of the clearing, running for a while and dodging from one of bit of cover to the next, as he could sense the occasional monster wandering through the forest.


	7. On The Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream tries to get away from the swap brothers. Will he succeed?

He'd managed to evade all of the sentries - getting a feel for when the next one - or pair - would show up. He jogged and teleported as quickly as he could (as he was unfamiliar with the area, he could only teleport as far as his line of sight guided him), and froze as he spotted a final sentry station, but he didn't sense anyone immediately around him. Dream teleported to the other end of the clearing and ran through the far-too wide apart gate, and skidding to a halt as he saw Stretch, Blue and Hatchet fighting.

"Why are you here?" Stretch hissed, one of his eyes glowing a bright orange, sending a wave of bones after Hatchet, who dodge with a quick flash of teleportation.

Blue summoned several odd-looking skulls, who started to charge with a light blue magic that would probably be incredibly destructive. "Leave this timeline! You are alone without allies, I suggest that you go."

Hatchet summoned the same number of strange skulls, their energy clashing together and cancelling it out, sending bones after both of them. "I ain't here to cause trouble! Just leave me the fuck alone and I won't mess with either of you or anyone in this timeline."

"So what, are you here for spider ciders and donuts from Muffet's?" Stretch asked sarcastically, glowering more at the other.

Dream yelled as loudly as he could. "WAIT! STOP!" All three of them froze, turning to stare at him as he sprinted towards them, too many bones and offensive magic in the area immediately surrounding the three of them for him to teleport in. 

As he was unused to running around in snow, he misjudged how much it would take for him to stop moving, and nearly fell face first into all three of theirs' bone attacks. But a surprisingly solid pair of arms grabbed him around the waist and teleported him a short, but safe distance backwards, an unknown voice calling out from directly behind him, laughing merrily, "Pff-hahaha! Careful there, friend. That could have been a pretty dicey situation." 

Dream blinked and looked up at the person holding him as Hatchet cursed violently behind him. They were wearing a long brown scarf. One of their eye lights were a blue circle, the other was a golden star with a smaller blue circle inside of it. "I... Uhm... Hello? Who... Who are you?"

Their eye lights turned into exclamation marks - one orange, the other green. "Oh! I'm Ink. It's wonderful to meet you... At first I thought you might be a different Swap Sans... But no... You're someone entirely  _ new _ . Who... Who are you and where are you from?"

"Don't answer that!”  Hatchet snarled, his singular eye light glowing brightly. The other sent a couple of bones in their direction.

Ink, who was still holding him, easily dodged, laughing merrily and answered cheerfully “That was rude Hatchet- that is what you've been named by the others at least. This mysterious stranger is safe with us. Three on one, those aren't good odds.”

Dream was thinking as quickly as he could. He was in a very vulnerable position at the moment, but none of them were aware that he wasn't neutral in their fight with his beloved mate. “I… Among other things, I am a healer… May I please check the three of you and heal any injuries you have? One of you is already very badly injured - given the crack in Hatchet's skull..."

"Neither of us got a scratch. And that bastard's better at dodging than that crack looks... Although I'm guessing that you knew that already, given that  _ he _ clearly recognizes you." Stretch called out, frowning a little as he glared a little at him "... You have an LV of one, so you're obviously not a fighter... I'm not sure I entirely believe you when you say that-"

Dream sighs, and he causes both of his hands to glow bright green. He sends an  _ attack _ at the other - more or less a condensed ball of healing energy at Stretch. It moves too quickly for the Papyrus to dodge and has no negative effect on him whatsoever. What it  _ does _ do is top up the other's MP. "See? Healer." He wiggles his fingers and giggled a little at the startled expression on Stretch's face.

Blue bolts over and checks his brother, a relieved sigh leaving him when he notes that his brother is in  _ better _ condition after the green  _ attack _ than he was before. "I would ask that you refrain from suddenly casting magic at one of us, even to prove that you are a healer, friend."

Dream ducked his head and blushed a little, fidgeting with his hands, "I... Sorry. I hadn't meant to frighten you, Blue...Uhm... Mr. Ink, would you please put me down?"

The taller skeleton pouted a little, his eye lights turning into a pink hexagon and a purple square. "Oh, I suppose so... Say, what timeline are you from? Like, do you know what your universe is called?" Ink set him down, though the other was still touching him.

Dream shook his head, entirely honest when he said, "I have no idea what my home timeline is called." He froze for a moment, his eye lights briefly shrinking as he realized that he... Could only very distantly sense Ink's emotions. Which was very odd, as they were in direct physical contact with him. Especially since he hadn't been expecting the other's touch, he should be nearly overwhelmed by the other's feelings. The other's emotional control must be  _ incredible _ to do such a thing. Or he was using some sort of spell to hide his emotional state - which given that Ink was fighting against Nightmare, made sense... But why then, were Blue and Stretch's emotions as clear as Hatchet's, if they fought alongside this skeletal guardian?

"Oi! Hatchet, why the  _ fuck _ did you... Oh fuck." Dust called out, suddenly teleporting over, his eye lights taking in the scene before him.

Killer teleported directly behind Dream, slashing his knife Ink's arm that had been casually thrown across his shoulders. "I don't think so! He's  _ ours _ ! You don't get to keep every cute thing or being you see!" With his other hand, Killer grabbed Dream and threw the other at Dust. "Get him out of here before the Stars take him, would you? It'd be a pity if we lost our newest healer so soon."

Ink dodged, pulling his brush from behind his back, sending a retaliatory wave of liquid magic at Killer - who teleported back to Dust, Hatchet already having teleported over to Dream.

Oh good, their stories were lining up - which probably meant that Killer had been lying in wait, hearing him claim to just be a healer.... The other had likely been waiting until the taller guardian put him down. Dream read the coordinates to the Havenfell that Nightmare wanted them to go and nodded just a little at the other. "Ack... Oh... Oh no..." He looks at Blue and Stretch. "I... I'm sorry for not telling you the full truth.... I just-" 

His other half's closest friends teleported him to a different spot in the snowy part of the cave, out of sight of the three of them. Dream immediately opens a portal and the four of them rush through it. Hatchet spoke up first. "I'll text boss - he'll probably have us move again. Ink can create portals too and it's quite possible that he might be able to chase us here."

Dream nodded, having stopped the fib that he'd been about to tell three of Nightmare's enemies - something about having escaped one of the _dark lord's_ strongholds, and had to return with his _terrifying_ _lieutenants_ because his mate was still held captive elsewhere. Dream didn't like to lie - but he certainly didn't want to cause Nightmare more problems by getting targeted by the trio as someone who could be used against the other. "Okay... I didn't mean to go to that particular timeline... I-I just..."

"The thunder scared the shit out of you and you just fled to the first timeline that the portal opened up to on instinct." Hatchet sighed, shaking his head a little bit as he sent Dream a small smile. "We all have things that bother or spook us pretty badly. I'm not mad at you... 'Sides you tried to come back to us as soon as you figured out that it was dangerous."

"I... Thanks, Hatchet." The positive guardian responded, a small smile appearing on his face as he nodded a little.

Killer speaks up after a moment. "Boss has given me a new AU for us to travel too. We should probably get going sooner, rather than later. It would be a giant fucking disaster if Ink ever got his hands on you." 

The other showed Dream the message, and the positive spirit started to open a portal, when a voice called out curiously "And just  _ why _ would it be a bad thing if I were able to talk to Dream for longer than I was able to... It was awfully rude of you to steal him away before I could say more than hi." 

Dust reacted first - sending a volley of bones at him while also shoving Dream through the half-open portal, hissing angrily "Like hell we'd tell  _ you _ that, Ink!"

Dream flailed a little, his golden eye lights widening in shock as he fell through the portal, trying and failing to grab any of the three of Nightmare's best friends in after him, before he lost concentration and the portal snapped shut. The positive spirit stumbled backwards, his eye lights shrinking as he fell through a black puddle tinged with a rainbow hue, getting completely covered in a thick, magical substance that blocked his sight for a terrifyingly long time.

As soon as he managed to uncover his eyes, he stared at the strange place that he was in. There were small, floating islands with large doors, one per island. Dream was unfortunately unable to  _ move _ to any of those doors, as his soul - the apple-shape it had apparently taken after he'd consumed the last Positive Fruit - was coated in blue magic. He twisted around and realized that Blue, Stretch and several other Sanses were assembled on the same island that he was on- why couldn't he sense their emotions? Dream started to panic as he realized he was coated in the strange liquid substance - it was mostly black but it had hints of rainbow and a  _ lot _ of yellow. When he tried and failed to open a portal, his magic unable to leave his physical form, Dream immediately tried to roll in the grass to get the substance off - or at least wipe it off with his hands - but they too, were coated in the strange black substance and it wasn't coming off. "P-Please let me go..." Dream called out to the assembled skeletons, his eye lights wide and pleading.

Stretch shook his head as one of the strange Sanses pulled him closer with a touch of his magic, answering after a moment, "We've got some questions for you - like why did you run off, after agreeing to stay with Blue and I? Also how the  _ fuck _ are you connected to The Bad Sanses?"

Dream blinked and tilted his head a little, genuinely not recognizing the term "... Who?"

Ink spoke up, looking slightly battered, but with four more Sanses in tow. "Hatchet, Dust and Killer... I'm more curious about your  _ name _ friend. Blue and Stretch told me that your name is  _ Dream _ ... And those three Sanses - most Horrors, Dusts and Killers work for Nightmare, if they're not in their own timelines... And those three specifically he uses quite a bit as they are very powerful fighters." Ink hummed, a small smirk appearing on his face as he wandered over to Dream, tilting his head a little. "... Huh..." His eye lights were changing color and shape too quickly for the positive spirit to figure out what they might be.

"... Where were you going about his name, Ink?" An Underfell Sans growled. "You did have a point with that, right? Not that it's weird that he immediately labeled himself as other than Sans... Although why the  _ fuck _ his soul is such a weird-ass shape is beyond me."

"Uhm... Would whoever is holding me with their magic please put me down? I don't mean any of you harm, and would simply like to be able to return home." Dream pleaded quietly, staring at each of them for a couple of seconds as he spoke, trying to gauge their reactions - this was much harder without his ability to sense their feelings. 

"Oh! Right - so your name is Dream. Which is pretty interesting, since Horror, Dust and Killer all work for an  _ awful _ Sans-esque being who calls himself Nightmare... Why, even if we weren't fighting, it seems as if his very  _ presence _ brings down the mood of everyone around him... Whereas you, Dream..." Ink paused for a moment, flicking one of his hands towards the positive spirit, pulling the strange substance off of him, and his aura gently washed over all of them, causing several of the Sanses to startle a little, "Seem to make everyone happier, by just being adorable! ... Or it's something that your magic does."

Shit. Time for a distraction. "Uhm... Okay...? So where  _ are _ we? It's very beautiful, but I've never been inside of such a strange timeline before... Although this would make the total number of timelines I've been to three." Dream tried, he was pretty sure that he wasn't strictly inside of any one timeline - as several of the doors that were close enough for him to read were labeled with the names of different AUs, but that could just be how this timeline worked.

"Pff-hahaha! You're not in a timeline, this is the Doodlesphere. The center of the multiverse, but not part of any one timeline or Alternate Universe. I set up a portal behind where you were shoved through to bring you here, as the only way that you can leave is either if I let you... Or you go through one of those doors But, given that you're being held in place by Blue magic, no one can interrupt us while we talk." Ink responded cheerfully, one of his eye lights a yellow circle, the other a blue star. "The bad sanses can't get here... Well, Nightmare might be able to, if he could find a door here, but I doubt that he could find one. Not easily."

"I'm not anyone important, not really... I just..." Dream sighed, looking down at the ground, trying to come up with someone that was truthful enough that they might not catch the lies. "I'm a healer, who was pressed into Lord N...  _ His _ service." He shivers a little, curling in on himself in the way that many who spoke of Nightmare did when under his rule. His beloved really wasn't that bad, but he could be incredibly intimidating when he wanted to. Dream is a nickname his lieutenants have given me because they think I'm really adorable. I've been told that my magic feels nice to other people, but I've never really understood why... I-I have to g-go back to them... M-My... My mate... He's... He's in one of the timelines that are controlled by the... Uhm... Bad Sanses? As you called them? And I... I don't know what will happen if I don't go back."

"Why the fuck do you help those bastards?" The Underfell Sans hissed, looking affronted at the very thought of capitulating with his beloved. 

As much as Dream wanted to tell them that they shouldn't fight Nightlight- that the other was working to better the living conditions of those who suffered awfully in dark timelines - it wouldn't cause them to let him go anytime soon. "What other choice do I have? Sure, there are  _ rumors _ that there are a group of people who fight against him, but until now, I just thought that was just fanciful rumors of the foolish and soon to be..." Dream allowed his voice to fade off, breaking a little. "Everyone I love and care for is under their  _ care _ . The love of my life included. I didn't know that I  _ could _ open portals until I tried to flee my home timeline... Stumbling into your timeline Stretch was the second time I ever attempted it."

All of them went quiet, digesting the information that he'd fed them, hoping that they'd believe him entirely. Blue, a small, considering frown appearing on his face as he asked curiously "When you and I first met, you introduced yourself as the Guardian of Positivity, what did you mean by that?"

_ Oh fuck _ . Dream had forgotten he'd done that. "I... Uhm… I can create positive feelings within other people with my magic? N-Not that I can exactly turn that part of my magic off… Also I can sense the emotional state of the beings around me unless they’ve got some sort of spell or potion or whatever to hide their feelings from me. Like Ink, for example. I can only very faintly feel his emotions. It’s… A new experience for me.” That was more or less the truth as the Tree had apparently been long-destroyed after Nightmare had eaten almost all of the apples. “... I believe I did explain this to you earlier, Blue?”

The other’s eye lights briefly shrank and a light blue blush appeared on the other’s face as he responded “I… Oh you’re right about that, haha. Sorry! I’ve been accused of being a bit of a scatterbrain - besides none of the others knew until you explained… So yeah?”

“I… Oh, Uhm… Okay?” Dream responded, fidgeting “I… I would very much like to be put down now - I should return to the AU that I was instructed to go to… I don’t… I don’t want to think of what will happen to my loved ones if I don’t… None of the four of  _ them _ are known for their mercy, haha…” He was working on that with them, actually, but again, that would reveal far more about who he was than he knew he should to enemies. Of course this is the moment that Dream’s phone goes off… With Nightmare’s ringtone. The positive spirit answers after a beat, watching them carefully. “Yes?”

“Dream, where are you? Dust, Hatchet and Killer tell me that you’re not in either AU that I mentioned to go to - has something happened?” Nightmare asked, worry clear in every syllable.

“I… Uhm… I’m in a place called the Doodlesphere, being held in place by blue magic wrapped around my soul. Ink was able to make a portal that I fell into after leaving the first AU that I was told to go to and into the second… I didn’t know that one could layer portals like that… Ink and…  _ several _ of his allies are kind of surrounding me, and I’m not sure why they won’t let me go… Please stay safe Moonbeam… I-I’ll try to get home as soon as I can.” Dream answered back, hoping that Nightmare didn’t immediately try to attack - this was Ink’s home turf and the positive spirit still hoped that he could talk his way out of this “But they seem nice and reasonable, so hopefully they’ll let me go soon… It’s not like I haven’t been imprisoned before… Hahaha… I love you and I always will...”

“... Fuck. I do have contact with someone who should know a way to get in there. A couple as a matter of fact. Either you’re free in twenty minutes or  _ I’m coming to get you _ .” Nightmare promised, voice dark and protective.

Dream was about to try to respond when his phone was snatched from his hands. “You know, we were talking to you. It’s rude to ignore us~!” Ink called out, his voice light and playful, but one of the other’s eye slights a blue circle, the other a red square. The other guardian hit the speaker button on his phone and called out curiously. “Hello? I’d rather that you not hang up just yet… Moonbeam, I believe Dream called you? If you can tell me which AU you’re in, I’ll be able to rescue you from Nightmare, so that the two of you can be free of his rule.”

Dream was trying not to freak out, his eye lights shrunk down to pinpricks as he hoped that Nightmare could disguise his voice sufficiently enough for this capricious being not to recognize him. He couldn’t help but point out, “Even… Even if you did rescue the two of us, what about everyone else in our timeline? Do you really think that we’d abandon them to whatever… Whatever  _ he _ would do to them for our defection? Lord Nightmare does not suffer traitors or runaways kindly - and the punishments can be…” Dream actually didn’t know how Nightlight handled traitors or those who attempted to flee him, but he sincerely doubted that the other reacted well to such things… Given how the other had lashed out at him by turning him to stone for trying to keep some semblance of balance between positive and negative feelings. He shuddered a little, one of his hands coming up to his neck, shuddering a little as a phantom of the pain around his neck from one of the other’s tentacles ran through him. In a very small voice, he responds “Lord Nightmare doesn’t take traitors - perceived or real very well at all.”

Nightmare spoke up, his voice lighter, and without that strange, echoing reverberating echo every time he spoke (hopefully different enough to fool them) “Dream defied L...Lord Nightmare  _ once _ . In his fury he… He nearly… He cursed him and killed hundreds in our timeline. I was one of the few who were spared because… Well… Healers are very rare in Nightmare’s kingdom and Dream is quite strong, though his magic is primarily passive in nature. I have no idea what Lord N will do if… If Dream fails to show up when he’s supposed to… And I… I have no idea what our timeline is called.”

Ink hummed a little, his eye lights question marks in purple and green, one of them inverted, before he suggested, “Well, if he roars at you for information about your mate, you could always tell him that Dream’s been captured by me! I’m Ink, guardian of the multiverse and I’ve been fighting against Nightmare for decades now with some success! I know some very clever science-y type Sanses who should be able to track down the AU that this cell phone was at least created in, which should bring us closer to where the both of you live. I’m sure that we’ll be able to drive the gooplord and his stabby minions from your timeline.”

“... And what happens to us when you leave? How do we know that he won’t simply retake our timeline and rule more cruelly for daring to hope that we’d be free of his influence?” Nightmare growled, snapping a little, though his voice was still the way it used to sound.

“Oh!... yes, that can be a bit of a problem  but depending on how many of you there are, it’d probably just be easier to chase them away and take the survivors to the Omega Timeline. You’ll be sare there, no one can enter it unless the creator of that timeline allows them too, and Nightmare isn’t even aware of the OT’s existence,” Ink explained confidently. “Don’t worry - we can make it look as if The Determined Human decided to reset your timeline and did a genocide run before going to the world above… Or however your story goes.” The very strange guardian explained, sounding far too happy to be suggesting such a thing.

Not that it would work for quite a few reasons, and Dream was trying not to panic at the thought of them finding their home timeline - but he tried to reassure himself by reminding himself that Nightmare would have ample time to marshal his forces  _ if  _ he was unable to escape before they pinpointed their timeline (or Nightmare was unable to find and rescue him). He also knew that saying that humans did not hold sway over the timeline - that there was only a single, unbending march onwards would be… Utterly unheard of for the rest of the multiverse and make things worse, so he stayed quiet.

“... I’m not sure that would work.” Nightmare responded, pitching his voice to be unsure but a tiny bit hopeful. “I just… I would rather Dream come home, so I know that he’s more or less safe. You’re charming and I’m sure you’re a nice person… But I’ve heard would-be rebels in the past and it never ends well for anyone but Lord Nightmare.”

“I’ll just have to prove it to you! And you’ll see your mate again… Once we free your world from Nightmare’s influence! Bye for now.” Ink decided, a light laugh in his voice as he hung up, wrapping an arm around Dream’s shoulders and instructing one of the others “Red, please let go of Dream’s… very unusual… Soul. I’m going to take him to Sci and you two distract each other far too much. Tell me, Dream, do all monsters have souls shaped like yours in your world?”

Dream blushed a bright gold and stuttered as he felt his soul fade back into his chest. “I…T-That’s a very personal q-question… But… My… My mate’s soul is the same shape, though it’s a different color.” 

“Fascinating…” Ink hummed, one of his eye lights a yellow swirl, the other an orange octagon. “I’m headed off to Sci’s timeline Talk to you all later~!” With that, the other opened a rainbow portal and teleported the both of them through it.


End file.
